By Laura Lane
That's because the North Merrick Board of Education denied the library board's recent request to place the proposal on the ballot.
The library board had expected to put the bond up for a vote in May. To do so, it would have had to run a legal notice in local papers weeks before the ballot initiative. The board needed the Board of Education's approval to place the notice, however. The board wouldn't give its OK, and it did not include discussion of the library on the agenda for its March meeting.
Library Director Margaret Cincotta said that she is frustrated. "We notified [the Board of Education] in February that we wanted to be on the March agenda," she said. "I don't know why they wouldn't put the library on the agenda."
North Merrick School District Superintendent David Feller and school board President John Pinto said the district's attorney advised the board against putting the library bond on the agenda. Bill Cullen, the library's attorney, filed an appeal to the commissioner of education, but hasn't received a response as yet. Cullen and the school district's attorney, Albert D'Agostino, have discussed the issue.
Cincotta said she also received copies of two petitions that sought to get two initiatives on the May 17 ballot. One requested that the library come under complete control of the North Merrick School District, which would enable the district to take over the library for educational and school-related purposes, including making it into a school. Fifty residents signed the petition.
The other ballot initiative would return management responsibility for the library property to the North Merrick school board. Thirty-four residents signed that petition. The North Merrick district did not receive the petitions in time to have the initiatives added to the May 17 ballot.
Cincotta said the library would have to make some decisions soon. "We'll have to wait for a decision from the commissioner," she said. "Then the library board will have to meet to decide if we want to put up the full bond referendum, and if we want to put it before the school district."
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