Vote ‘yes’ to save Woodstock Library

Dear Editor: We fully support keeping and rehabbing the graceful, attractive, historical building that currently exists. We need a library scaled to the size of Woodstock — and that is the one that has graced the town for many years.

Those who have guided the library for a number of years have increased the taxes every year beyond the 2 percent threshold, so that regular Woodstock taxpayers are increasingly burdened by a runaway library leadership and their ever-increasing taxation. They have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers dollars in past years on ill-fated projects, including the so-called annex, that was proposed to be built in a floodplain, and not to have a single book.

Woodstock can be a contentious town. In the current library debate, we call for polite, well-reasoned language. Those who support the status quo put such misstatements in their leaflets and on their signs. They allege that a “yes” vote on the referendum will “terminate” the library. What rubbish. If “yes” prevails, the library will not close, it will continue to serve the public, staff will continue to have pensions, and our library will continue to belong to the Mid-Hudson Library System. Three of our area’s municipal libraries (Cairo, Windham and Pine Plains) are all in the system.

The governance of the Woodstock Library needs to be changed for the good of Woodstock. By voting “yes” for the referendum, you’ll be voting for a new method of governing the library — not dissolving it, but keeping it functioning fully. The Woodstock town government has a sterling reputation as the stewards of proper upkeep of municipal buildings.

After a successful referendum vote, the trustees must make immediate arrangements for the town of Woodstock to establish a municipal library, a new charter, and to assume governance of the library, and all its property, programs and personnel.

We urge Woodstock readers to vote “yes” on the Nov. 6 referendum. It will be located on the back of the ballot. Ed and Miriam Sanders

Woodstock