Norwood Voters Say Yes To Library District

NORWOOD - The voters in Norwood have spoken and opened a new chapter in the history of the Norwood library.

The proposal to create the special taxing district needed to fund the village library was passed by a 210-162 Tuesday, ensuring the library will live to celebrate its 100th birthday early next year.

"I feel great," Phyllis G. McFaddin, co-president for the library's Board of Trustees, said moments after the results were announced. "I'm glad it came out the way it did, and I'm really happy the people in the community supported us."

Earlier this year library officials said the Morton Street building would be forced to close its doors for good unless the district was approved.

The struggling economy and losses in the stock market had taken its toll on the library, they said, and the building could no longer generate the funding required.

Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, D-Theresa, has voiced her support for the district and state legislators passed a bill allowing its creation, a plan Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo approved.

The library laid out a proposed $85,000 budget and waited to see what the voters would say.

Critics argued the library had managed to survive on much lower budgets in years past. Library officials said the amount was necessary to make improvements and cover rising costs and repairs to the building.

In the end, the need for a library outweighed the tax increase, many voters said.

"I feel a library is vital to the community," Diane K. Purvis, who also serves as librarian at Norwood-Norfolk Central School, said.

Mrs. McFaddin agreed.

"I think the people who voted feel their library is very important to them, obviously or they wouldn't have voted yes if it wasn't," she said. "Even the people who don't use the library realized that it is a very important part of the community."

The library has been a part of the village's history for decades and plays a role in its idendity, village resident Frances M. Stevens said.

"I think not having a library would take away from the sense of community a bit," she said.

The special district, which encompasses taxpayers in the Norwood-Norfolk Central School District with the exclusion of those living in the town of Norfolk, will be around as long as the library is operational.

The approved budget will allow for a number of repairs to the building and allow library leaders to buy new books, something they haven't done in over a year, Mrs. McFaddin said.

It will also allow the library to re-hire the two part-time staff members they let go as a part of budget cuts.

And the funding should be able to sustain the library for the foreseeable future, Mrs. McFaddin said.

"I don't think they (voters) have to be the least bit worried that we're going to ask them for anything more, probably for the next 10 years," she said.