North Valley Stream chooses Elmont

In a landslide vote, North Valley Stream residents voted to keep the Elmont Memorial Library as the official library of the district for the next five years.

Town of Hempstead officials said the unofficial vote count was 283 votes for Elmont, 48 for the Henry Waldinger Memorial Library in Valley Stream, and seven for Malverne. Town officials added that there were still about two dozen uncounted paper ballots, but those votes wouldn’t change the outcome of the election.

Elmont Library Director Maggie Gough said officials there worked hard lobbying for support and she’s pleased with the how it turned out. “We are happy to have these patrons stay with us at the Elmont Library,” Gough said. “I think we really went out and tried to show the people of East Franklin Square and North Valley Stream that our library has so much to offer them... this just means that everything goes better for us with them here.”

Gough added that budget talks will start soon, and library officials will try to maintain its top notch services while efficiently using residents’ tax dollars.

Elmont Library Trustee Pat Nicolosi echoed Gough’s sentiments. “We’re ecstatic and grateful that the residents of East Franklin Square and North Valley Stream appreciate our services,” he said. “I don’t know another library on Long Island that’s as nice as ours, and we’re aiming to keep these residents for a long time.”

The 60,000-square-foot Elmont Memorial Library offers 88 programs per month, from yoga classes to art services. It has a 430-seat theater where off-Broadway shows and other musical programs are performed each month. According to Gough, the Elmont facility has one of the largest book budgets in Nassau County, which helps it maintain a wide selection. It has large-type books, Gough said, as well as books on tape and volumes that are downloadable from the Internet. “It’s new innovations for old technology,” she said.