Shelter Island Library budget vote is Saturday

If you’re registered to vote, you’re eligible to cast a ballot on the Shelter Island Library 2024 budget.

The proposed spending plan totals $956,161 with $789,806 that would come from taxpayers, with the rest coming from contributions, grants and fundraising events.

The spending proposal is $34,010 higher than the current year’s budget, with increases largely resulting from higher costs of health insurance premiums and small salary hikes, according to Library Director Terry Lucas.

A property owner with a median priced home assessed at $836,000 will see an estimated $7.87 increase in taxes to support the library.

Voting takes place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday in the library’s community room. None of the spending is related to expenses in connection with the library’s building project. The community approved the building project this year, but there is work to be done on finalizing the design of the expanded structure and arrangements on financing. Paying for the expansion won’t start until 2025, Ms. Lucas said.

Ms. Lucas said library patrons have increased the use of ebooks and audio books. The library has seen an increase in patrons ordering those by 18 to 22%  per month.

Given the current size of the library, it can only have space for a certain number of bound books, but while she’s happy to promote the many different ways in which the library serves the community, she said that as long as she is director, there will always be attention to bound books.

What Ms. Lucas and Board of Trustees President Jo-Ann Robotti want the community to know, they said, is in today’s world, the services the staff renders and the items they provide are not just books. Thanks to the contribution from the Shelter Island Lions Club the library has a machine enabling those with macular degeneration and other eye diseases to enlarge type so they can clearly read.

The machine is smaller and lighter than a desktop computer, so it can be moved from one desk space to another, Ms. Lucas said.

Ms. Robotti raves about the “List of Things” — items available for loan that people need, but don’t necessarily need to own. Such items that can be borrowed include a telescope, DVD player, birding backpacks, badminton sets and special seasonal cake pans. Staff members have strung a clothesline of cards representing the items.

Borrowers simply take a card to the front desk where the item of choice will be pulled from the shelves and checked out. Aside from borrowing materials, many in the community come to the library to socialize.

For adults it may be mahjong, special programs with speakers with a wide array of specialties, access to computers or to use the library’s Wi-Fi. Children come to play with toys; older students bring their homework, but also enjoy games.

Others come for clinics held for inoculations. They did so during the height of the COVID pandemic and are currently trying to provide on-Island flu and pneumonia shots, Ms. Lucas said. Others come to get passports, or because they need a notary.

As much more space is needed, the current building manages to share what space it has with the school or other organizations.

Again, voting in the library’s community room takes place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Oct. 28.