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July 27, 2009

Demarest puts library ownership before voters

Monday, July 27, 2009

BY KAREN SUDOL
The Record
STAFF WRITER

DEMAREST – Voters will be asked in November whether ownership of the privately-run library should transfer to the borough.

The Borough Council recently approved a binding referendum question which would establish a municipal public library.

Doing so would mean:

* The library would be eligible for state grants — in construction or technology, for example — that it can't seek now.

* Library employees could receive pensions.

"It doesn't pay for us to remain an association library at this point," said Councilman Brian Bernstein. "We need to become a municipal library and obtain all the benefits available as a municipal library."

There are only five private association libraries in Bergen County including Demarest and the last to make the change was Harrington Park in 1989, said Robert White, the Bergen County Cooperative Library System's executive director.

Because the library is privately owned, the borough hasn't had to follow a law that requires municipalities to allocate a base amount in tax revenues, or "one-third of a mill" of the equalized valuation, to their libraries.

One-third of a mill amounts to 33 cents for every $1,000 of assessed valuation and most libraries are funded at or a shade above that level.

But as a participating member of the BCCLS, the town complies with a bylaw that assesses the borough 15 percent increases each year to get Demarest more in line with what the municipal libraries pay.

Two years from now, the amount the borough will contribute to the library will almost equal the one-third of a mill figure, said Bernstein.

"We're going to get there no matter what," he said.

Margaret Shapiro, president of the library's board of trustees, said a switch to a municipal library would guarantee funding because the borough would be required to follow the state law.

"Our funding will go up and it's not going to be questioned every year," she said.

E-mail: sudol@northjersey.com

Posted by tumulty at July 27, 2009 10:41 AM

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