Commissioners lay down final library position

No meeting date has been set

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA — The most recent communication of the Pike County Commissioners to the Pike County Public Library (PCPL) board in a letter on February 2 lays down the commissioners’ final position in the dispute between the two parties.

The letter was the outcome of a caucus meeting of the three commissioners held last week to respond to the previous meeting with the PCPL board.

The main points of the commissioners’ letter were that the library board should have nine members, four selected by the commissioners and four by PCPL and one member by the Community House where the library is now housed. As it is now, the commissioners select only two members.

If the PCPL board wishes to have five members, then it will be expanded to 11 members with the same principles applied as stated above. The letter said that the bylaws regarding the board membership should reflect these items. It stated further that a board director can only be removed for cause.

The commissioners’ letter states that in December 2010, they will discuss the future composition of the library board and that “the continued support of $200,000 would be disbursed depending on performance and progress toward a county-wide library system.”

The other key point was that “after construction of a new facility, the PCPL board will be appointed per 24 P.S. Section 4412, [referring to a section of the state’s library code] as if the library was established after the effective date of the 1961 state library code.”

The PCPL board has insisted that the state library code expanding the number of board members to 11 in order to allow a wider representation of county residents does not apply, since the library was founded before the 1961 standard was enacted into law.

The commissioners’ letter ends with “We will await your decision.” Whether the PCPL board will agree or what its reaction is will not be known until the two groups meet. The commissioners did not select a date for that meeting.

“We want to give them time to consider the items in our letter,” said Rich Caridi, chairman of the commissioners.