100 YEARS AGO IN THE SARATOGIAN
Monday, Feb. 10, 1919. Saratoga Springs school superintendent Charles S. Mosher calls on the city council to take the city’s public library off his hands and install it in the Casino, The Saratogian reports.
Mosher presents his proposal at tonight’s council meeting, with acting mayor John A. T. Schwarte presiding. “In brief, the idea is to separate the public library from the Board of Education an establish rooms elsewhere than in the High school building, maintaining it by separate appropriation based on an annual budget submitted by the library trustees,” a reporter writes.
With more than 2,000 regular library users, Mosher argues that “there is a great need of better library services in the city.” He confesses that while “I have been able to build up the library considerably with outside help,” since the U.S. entered the world war “the library has not been given proper care.”
The school board endorsed Mosher’s plan earlier this month, over the opposition of William J. Delaney. He warns that making the library an independent entity with its own board of trustees “will mean added expense to the city.
“By granting any five men the full control of the library with the right to submit a budget direct to the City Council, there would be no limit to the expense.”
Mosher dismisses Delaney’s objection, noting that any budget submitted by the library trustees would be subject to amendment by the council before final approval. The matter will be raised again at a public meeting a week from today.
Plans Proposed to Cut City’s Tax Budget
Also appearing before the council tonight Chamber of Commerce president Joseph H. Clark, who offers several proposals to reduce the tax burden on Saratogians, including the extension of the city’s tax district to include outlying properties “now enjoying the privileges of the city without paying the tax.”
The city can save $2,000 per year immediately by abolishing its public hackstand, Clark suggests. The hackstand is a central office people can call when they need car or carriage service. Adjusted for inflation, the city spends approximately $31,000 per year in 2019 money on the hackstand.
“If it is necessary to sustain a phone service at the expense of the taxpayers to furnish residents with hacks, they why is it not equally so in other lines of trade or commerce?” Clark asks.
“If anyone needs a dress length they phone direct for such to Starbuck and Co. or J. P. McGirr and Co. Does it not therefore seem feasible that the same course should be followed in the application for a tack or taxi?”