Borough Council slates hearing on funding for library

The ordinance would authorize $5.76 million for construction.

By: Jennifer Potash
   Funding for the Princeton Public Library expansion and the annual report from The Arts Council of Princeton top the agenda of the Princeton Borough Council on Wednesday.
   The meeting, scheduled for Sept. 11, was postponed following the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
   The Borough Council is expected to hold a public hearing on an ordinance that would authorize $5.76 million for construction of the new library.
   Princeton Borough and Princeton Township jointly own the library and, in the end, they will contribute a combined $6 million for the $17.5 million expansion project.
   The library has raised $9 million of its $11.5 million goal but needs all the money up front to sign a contract with a construction company. With that in mind, the two municipalities agreed in July to bond the total cost of the project and introduced bond ordinances last month.
   Princeton Township approved its share, $11.6 million, Thursday.
   The library’s foundation, which is collecting the $11.5 million for the project, will use its money first and the municipalities will step in when those funds are exhausted or to cover a shortfall, according to Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi.
   The Arts Council is required, as a condition of its purchase of its building from the borough, to make an annual report of its activities in the John-Witherspoon neighborhood. Mayor Marvin Reed, in a memo to the Borough Council, suggested the governing body "ask The Arts Council what we may expect in terms of continued service to the Princeton community and the John-Witherspoon neighborhood."
   The trustees of The Arts Council on Sept. 6 delayed a decision about the future site of the organization. The options are expanding the existing Witherspoon Street location or moving to a site on the Lucent Technologies property in Hopewell Township.
   The council also is expected to discuss rate increases proposed by Elizabethtown Water Co.