Keep town maintenance of library

Council members split about library

   Jamesburg Mayor Tony LaMantia has seen the light.
   We only hope the rest of the Borough Council sees it before Wednesday and puts to rest any discussion of closing the Jamesburg Library.
   Mayor LaMantia said this week that he plans to ask members of the council to table an ordinance that would place a question on the November ballot asking voters to end municipal maintenance of the library.
   Two members of the council — Barbara Carpenter and Tom Bodall Jr. — have said they will vote against the referendum ordinance, while others are prepared to push forward. The reason, they say, is that state-mandated library spending and a new state tax levy cap are squeezing the budget.
   Council members like Otto Kostbar and Brian Grimes have said they are concerned that increases in library spending could mean cuts in other programs, like the Police Department or garbage collection, because the total tax levy is not allowed to increase by more than 4 percent. Library spending has been increasing in recent years, including 17 percent this year.
   But minimum spending required by the state is rather small, no matter what the council members say.
   The $170,472 being provided by the borough is a fraction of the money spent by larger towns, even when calculated on a per capita basis. For instance, Jamesburg is planning to spend about $22 per resident; Monroe spends $65 per person and South Brunswick $63, while the Middlesex County average is $48, according to the State Library Association.
   And this is with the library being a municipal library.
   If the ordinance is approved Wednesday and the referendum passes Nov. 6, the library no longer would be considered a municipal library and the council would no longer be required to provide funding. It would then be up to the library board of trustees to decide if the library should continue operating as an association — or privately run — library. Association libraries are funded privately — through donations and other revenue — and often receive money from municipal governments, though there is no requirement that municipal money be provided.
   That will mean a significant reduction in what already is a rather paltry municipal contribution — after all, why vote to end the municipal affiliation if you’re not planning to cut the library budget.
   That’s why we have been opposed to the referendum proposal since it surfaced in June. We believe that stripping the library of guaranteed funding would make it difficult for the library to operate and could eventually force it to close, an outcome that contradicts the efforts being made by the Jamesburg Revitalization Coalition and the Borough Council to revitalize the borough’s downtown.
   Borough residents need to make their voices heard on Wednesday. They need to convince those council members who might be on the fence that they need to find other solutions to the borough’s budget woes and that the Jamesburg Public Library should not be sacrificed.