By Linda Delmonico-Prussen
In total, the budget is to rise from nearly $1.6 million to more than $1.77 million.
Because of Nassau County's recent reassessment of property values, acting library director Ellen Firer could not say exactly how the larger budget would affect people's library tax bills. "Due to reassessment, we cannot use the formula we used in the past," Firer said.
The two line items that are slated to increase the most in next year's budget are debt service and personnel. Firer said the library's debt service would increase by $67,000, from $25,000 this year to $92,000 next year. That's because the library will make its first interest-only payment on a $10 million bond issued for construction of a new Merrick Library.
The current library on Merrick Avenue is to be razed, probably in October, and construction will start sometime after that. Firer could not say exactly when.
Last spring, Sonya Minkoff, the former acting library director who retired recently, said that the new library would add $84 to $85 to residents' annual tax bills.
Firer said the library plans to hire additional personnel in the near future, and built into next year's budget is an approximate $172,000 increase to pay for new workers' salaries and benefits. In total, the library's personnel budget is to increase by 19.7 percent, from about $874,000 to more than a $1 million.
Firer said new staff members are very much needed. "We are very tightly staffed, bordering on understaffed," she said. She couldn't say, however, when or how many new staff members would be hired.
In the 2003-04 budget, the cost of certain items, such as utilities, programming and printing, will decline. The reason is that, when the current library is demolished, services will be offered in the significantly smaller Library Annex just down the street, where day-to-day costs will be lower.
Also, the library's book budget will drop, mainly because fewer reference materials will be purchased. "Next year we're going to be in a smaller place. We're not going to be able to expand the reference section as we normally would," Firer said.
Vote information
A public hearing about the Merrick Public Library's 2003-04 budget will take place Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the library's community room.
The budget vote will be held Wednesday, April 2 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., also in the community room.
To vote on the library budget, you must be an U.S. citizen, 18 years or older, a resident of the Merrick School District for at least 30 days before the election and currently registered to vote.
You must register if: you did not vote in the past four years on either the school or library budget; you are not now registered for general elections, or you are a new resident in the Merrick School District.
Registration takes place in the Katherine E. Reif Administration Building (behind Levy-Lakeside School), 21 Babylon Road, Merrick, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (when school is in session).
