Galway voters reject proposal for new library

This is a rendering of the proposed new public library in Galway. (provided image)

Voters in the Galway Central School District on Wednesday rejected plans to build a new Galway Public Library building on East Street, in what was a large turnout for a library vote.

The plan to borrow up to $1.8 million for the new building was defeated by a vote of 396 in favor to 449 opposed, said Arlene Rhodes, president of the library’s Board of Trustees. Paying for the building would have raised taxes on a home with an assessed value of $100,000 by about $43 per year, and a number of residents objected to the cost.

Supporters, who have been working on the project for several years, said a new, 7,500-square-foot library was needed because the library started in 1998 has outgrown what can be done in the current building, an 1,800-square-foot converted former Odd Fellows hall that can hold no more than 23 people.

Rhodes said it’s too soon to know what the library’s next move will be.

“I’m disappointed, and we’ll need to reach out to the community about what the library can do to meet the community’s needs in that little building or what other project we might be able to come up with,” Rhodes said following voting at Galway Town Hall.

The new library would actually cost about $3.1 million to build, but contributions from the Dockstader Charitable Trust and other private sources were going to cover the difference. In 2013, library trustees purchased a 13.6-acre site on East Street across from St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church for a new library, using $77,000 in state grant money.

The library’s service area covers the Galway Central School District, which includes residents of West Charlton and Providence and small parts of Amsterdam and Perth, as well as the town of Galway itself.