Voters reject Mattituck-Laurel Library's $5.5M bond vote

Voters in the Mattituck-Laurel Library District on Tuesday rejected a referendum to borrow $5.5 million for the first major upgrades to the facility in 25 years.

A total of 230 residents voted no, compared with 157 who voted to approve the bond proposal, according to the district's website.

The borrowing would have funded significant overhauls, including a second, 2,142-square-foot story with an art gallery and more meeting rooms for the public to reserve. There has been a spike in demand for public meeting rooms, including from clubs and civic groups. The new configuration would have added four rooms for quiet study and a dedicated, walled-off room for teenagers.

The borrowing would have funded the replacement of the building's roof and outdated HVAC and plumbing systems, Newsday previously reported. Annual library district tax bills would've risen by about $77, the district has said.

Shauna Scholl, the library's executive director, said Wednesday that she was disappointed with the results. The library’s board of trustees had worked on plans for the renovations for the past two years, she said in an interview.

“It’s fair to say that we’re all a little disappointed,” Scholl said. “We’re going to have to regroup and look towards doing something else because there are things that need to be addressed.”

She said did not know why the community rejected the proposal. “We tried to involve as much community feedback as we could,” Scholl said. “I’m not entirely positive what happened with the vote but maybe we need to take a look at our messaging or work on our outreach.”

Karim Boughida, dean of Stony Brook University Libraries, said libraries are becoming increasingly essential as they expand and adopt emerging technology, such as virtual reality.

Policymakers should equate funding public libraries to the way other government services are financed, he said.

"This is a public good that should be funded the same way you fund firefighters or police officers," Boughida said in an interview.

Scholl echoed the importance of sustainable support, highlighting how libraries make do with limited resources. Libraries, she said, “are really good at doing a lot with a little.”

An annual budget of $1.7 million is key to running the day to day operations, she said, “but we do need to address some of the facility concerns because we want to have a building for the next 30 years to provide those services."