JAMESTOWN – Voters in Jamestown have overwhelmingly rejected an $850,000 tax referendum for the James Prendergast Library.
The vote on the library Funding Initiative took place Tuesday at the Prendergast Library, with any eligible voters in the Jamestown School District eligible to vote on the referendum. According to the Chautauqua County Board of Elections, the unofficial vote from Tuesday was 1306 against, 856 in favor.
As a result of the vote, the library’s financial situation remains dire, with officials now facing limited options to help close the facility’s structural budget gap. Among the options that have been discussed in recent month is the reduction of hours of operation and staff cuts, along with eliminating some of the services the library provides.
The board will also continue to look into selling the library’s art collection (listed as being worth $3.17 million in the library’s 2014 990 tax return) to help restore funding in its endowment fund. In December 2015 the library announced that it would hold off on auctioning the collection and instead give the community time to identify local investors who could purchase the art and keep the collection remaining in Jamestown. If no local investors come forward with a plan for the artwork, the board would then consider selling individual pieces at auction. However, because any money from the art would go into the endowment, it would only yield about $30,000 in additional budget revenue for the library on an annual basis, well short
The library will also have to wait and see if it will receive any funding from the city of Jamestown in 2017. The city is facing a $2 million budget gap and will have to consider cuts to non-essential expenses in order to deal with the shortfall. That means there’s the possibility the city will not be able to give the library $350,000 next year, as it did for the current budget year.
The library will likely begin considering options when the board holds its next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, June 16.
The library was asking the community too much. It would have been easy street for them if this passed. There is no need to deliver books to senior centers or to be open on Sundays. I never did understand if any money goes to the other libraries in the county. If so, why should Jamestown tax payers support them? This county does not need 36 libraries. Close some.
The library needs good computers since so many use them. Less money should be spent on buying new books.
I still feel the library gave up the big book sale because it was too much work and by doing that much community support was lost.
One dollar and fifteen cents per thousand dollars of assesed value is not too much. I think there was some fear mongering going on with the landlords and tenants. I noticed a trace of it on Facebook recently with a website dedicated to telling landlords to tell their tenants to vote NO, instilling a fear in them that their rents would have to be raised a lot to cover this library tax as a result. This was just wrong and inaccurate information. From experience I have seen rental properties in Jamestown are not usually assessed over fifty thousand dollars. When you consider renters who live in two, three, four or five unit dwellings all in one house, they could have equally shared in the tax burden. For a house assessed at fifty thousand with four units in it, the expected increase would have been about a dollar a month per unit, if a landlord wanted to be fair and equitable about it. One dollar a month increase in rent would be barely noticeable, not even to a renter. And for a house assessed at 25 thousand, the tax would be cut in half, and in that case, each unit should only be responsible for fifty cents a month. I know this was a big principle issue though, for people who swear they don’t want any new taxes. Not even if its only fifty cents, or a dollar a month per unit, or keeps them or their tenants in ignorance or poverty. they just hate the word tax. Period. Just plain stubborn people who vote based on anger and fear and not the facts.
This vote was for the Prendergast Library only, and City of Jamestown School District residents only. Nothing more. There is nothing anyone can do about closing the 36 other county libraries, who bless their souls, must somehow be surviving on their own with whatever anyone donates to them or gives them. Just goes to show you how much hate and stupidity there is, suggesting to close libraries that aren’t even asking for any tax monies and had nothing whatsoever to do with this vote.
The other libraries get some tax money from the state and if some libraries were to be closed that money could be diverted to central libraries.
The Prendergast library has not made much effort to raise money since it thought it was too much work to have the huge book sale they use to have. The library thought they could push this measure through and be on easy street.
The daily book sale generates more income than the yearly one. Sorry you prefer on the only the yearly one. The daily sale has some awesome things. The leftovers from the annual sale were huge. Not everything sold you know. Now there is time for people to really look at everything. All year long.
By the way, libraries don’t think. People think. This measure was required by the generous donors who refuse to help fund the library anymore until the people of the library and it’s board tried every measure possible to help themselves. This dedicated tax for the library was one of those measures. This tax measure was attempted back in 2005, and failed in Jamestown. I think a lot of supporters prayed the people of Jamestown would support and appreciate their library as much as the other 265 communities that passed similar dedicated taxes statewide. Unfortunately, we residents of Jamestown are still at the bottom of the list, having rejected our own library’s request for funds twice.
Could it be that the people of Jamestown feel that they do not use the library as they once did? People now get their info from the internet and that is reason for the library to have great computer excess for those who do not have it through their phones or tablets.
I think the Jamestown voters would have voted for the measure if the amount of money asked was less and if they felt the suggested program was more for the people and not for what the librarians wanted. The library board has a problem too and has lost its way. You need members who think and do not rubber stamp what the director wants.