Delaware Township wants out

Growing opposition to library tax

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA — The outer townships of Pike County are making negative rumblings about the library referendum that will appear on the November 3 ballot. The referendum asks for the imposition of a one mill tax on all county property owners to benefit the Pike County Public Library.

The tax would raise about $1,000,000, county officials said. They estimate that the tax would impose about a $35 increase in taxes for a home worth $150,000.

The Delaware Township Board of Supervisors went on record as opposing the library tax, stating that they already have the only municipally run library in the county. The board sent a letter to the county requesting that they be excluded from the ballot measure.

In a reply to their request, the county’s solicitor, Tom Farley, responded that the county was questioning if the Delaware library was an official library. According to the Delaware Township Library Association, their library is a fully functioning library that is open to the public, and has over 1,800 active members. County residents can join for a nominal one-time fee.

“We have been an incorporated public library since 1981 with our own library association and feel that we should not be included in the Pike County Public Library system,” said Ileana Hernandez, Delaware Township supervisor. “Our attorney sent a letter to the county commissioners stating that our library is an official public library and should not be included in any tax for the public library in Milford.”

This tax represents a 7.5 percent increase for all residences. “At this time, we are all feeling the economic pinch of the recent recession and feel that it is a bad time to levy such a tax,” she said. “We may not have the number of publications that the Milford library has, but we do have computers and reference materials and other books and materials.”

“It is my understanding that the Delaware Township library does not meet the minimum standards set by the state library authority,” said Maleyne Syracuse of the Pike County Public Library Board. Syracuse did not cite specific details of those standards, but noted that the Pike County Public Library must adhere to them in order to be considered a real library according to the state.

From the western part of the county, Greene Township businessman Gordon Olsommer added his voice to those rejecting the imposition of the tax.

“Most people in the county will never use this library since it is so far away,” Olsommer said. He said that he and his neighbors are well served by local libraries that are a lot closer than Milford.

“Greene Township is not a part of the Pike County Public Library community,” he said. “I take strong offence at being taxed for a library that is 32 miles away and that I will never use.”

In response to the objections from Greene Township, Syracuse stated that the purpose of the funding was to create two libraries that would serve the southern and western part of the county. “The funding coming from the tax would not be used for the Milford Branch alone, but is intended to fund construction of libraries in Lehman and Palmyra townships,” she said. “We understand why some people may object to the new tax but we urge that they look to the plan we have to expand the library to outlying regions.”