‘Yes’ vote will harm Woodstock Library

Dear Editor: The referendum to dissolve and terminate the Woodstock Library District is not about the building. A vote about the building would happen if and when a project gets far enough along in the process to go to bond.

This vote is about whether or not to revoke the charter that allows the library to exist as a special district. You cannot have a public library without a charter. Why would New York state issue another charter to a town that revokes the superior charter it already has? No town in state history has ever voted to downgrade its library. We don’t know if we’ll be able to get a new charter or how long it might take. No one does.

What we do know is special districts like ours provide the most stable funding and are the most democratic. Uncertain funding puts the staff and programming at risk. Losing our charter means we lose our membership in the Mid-Hudson Library System. Say goodbye to interlibrary loans and online resources. It also means you lose your right to vote on your representatives and on the budget. If our special district is terminated, we cannot get it back.

A “yes” vote will not save our library, it will irrevocably harm it.

Woodstock voters should not dissolve and terminate our library district. Voters should vote “no” on the library referendum. Julie Parisi, Woodstock