Judge says no to Pike BOE

Library issue back on Delaware Township ballot

By TOM KANE

STROUDSBURG, PA — Judge Ronald E. Vican of the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas overturned the Pike County Board of Elections decision to remove the library tax referendum question from the November 3 ballot in Delaware Township.

The Monroe County judge took on the case because Pike County Judges Joseph F. Kameen and Gregory H. Chelak recused themselves from the case.

As a result of Judge Vican’s decision, the library tax referendum will appear on the ballot countywide.

“Today’s ruling should in no way affect the Delaware Library Association itself,” said a press release from the Pike County Public Library. “It has existed alongside the Pike County Library System for over 30 years and we expect it will continue to do so.”

Two weeks ago, the Pike County Board of Election (BOE) accepted an opinion of county solicitor Thomas Farley and granted a petition that excluded Delaware Township from the tax on the basis that the township already had a legitimate public library.

“After a thorough review of the witness testimony and exhibits admitted into evidence, we find that although the residents are clearly sentimental toward the facility, it fails to rise to the level of a local library,” Judge Fican said. “The facility does not meet the requirements to serve the informational, educational and recreational needs of all the residents of the area for which its governing body is responsible.”

The referendum will impose a one-mill tax that would be used by the library for operations and expansion. The tax would assist the library board in building two more satellite libraries in Lehman Township and the Palmyra/Blooming Grove area, and a new system headquarters in Milford, library officials said.

At a meeting on October 21 of the county commissioners, who also constitute the Board of Election, Maleyne Syracuse of the Pike County Public Library board made several attempts to defend the library’s intention before a hostile audience, mainly made up of members of the Taxpayers United (TU), a militant group that has opposed several school budgets and that opposes the library tax.

“Our main objection is that the library board is not representative of the county population but is an exclusive group of people, mainly from the Milford area, who control the process,” said Robert Goldsack, who is a member of the Delaware Valley School District board.

“It amounts to taxation without representation,” said Gordon Olsommer, a Greene Township businessman who is a leading opponent of the tax. Olsommer has contended at numerous public meetings that the county public library that is located in Milford will not be used by residents of southern and western Pike County because of its distance from these townships. “This vote, which would impose an average increase of $35 per household, comes at a bad time when the economy is poor and people are hurting.”