Date: Fri 10-Nov-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Booth-library-referendum

Full Text:

Vote On Library Plan Is November 15

For the second time in eight days, Newtown voters will go the polls on

Wednesday, November 15.

A referendum, coming on the heels of the November 7 town election, will decide

the fate of the proposed $4.1 million expansion and renovation of the Cyrenius

H. Booth Library.

Voting will be in the Newtown Middle School gymnasium from 6 am to 8 pm.

Anyone who is a registered voter in the Town of Newtown or who is assessed at

least $1,000 for real estate or motor vehicles on the 1994 grand list in

Newtown is qualified to vote at the referendum.

Absentee ballots also are available for qualified voters who will not be in

town during normal voting hours or who are unable to vote in person because of

a physical disability or unforeseen illness. Voters must apply in person at

the town clerk's office or appoint a designee to obtain the ballot. The

ballots are available during office hours 8:30 am to 4:40 pm Monday through

Friday.

The town clerk's office also will have special hours on Saturday, November 11,

from 9 am to noon for the sole purpose of absentee balloting.

The Board of Selectman met last Friday to set the date for the special

referendum after library opponents gathered more than the 573 names needed on

petitions to force the vote. The referendum will supercede the approval given

on October 25 at a town meeting attended by 222 residents.

Opponents, led by Main Street resident Edwin Baumer, said the issue should be

decided in the privacy of the voting booth, not at a town meeting. They said

the proposed project is too big and too expensive for a town that is facing

many other capital needs including as sewers, schools and roadwork.

Supporters of the project say the library is too small and outdated. The

building has not had any major renovations since it was built in 1932 when

Newtown had a population of only about 2,000; the only improvements have been

the construction in 1980 of a 4,000-square foot addition housing restrooms and

an elevator.

The State Library Commission has agreed to provide a $350,000 construction

grant but only if the library addition is designed to the guidelines set for a

town of more than 20,000 population.

The proposed 22,000-square-foot library addition includes a new reference

area, a children's library, young adults room, fiction room and a meeting room

plus parking for 80 cars in a lot behind the building. Major renovations also

will be done in the existing building.

Voters at a town meeting in December approved the expenditure of $250,000 for

the library architect fees. The project, designed by King & Tuthill of Avon,

an architectural firm which specializes in libraries, will be built by

Building Technologies, Inc., of Prospect, the low bidder, if the proposal is

approved in next week's referendum.

Although procedure requires that the town vote to bond the entire $4.1

million, $3,750,000 actually would be bonded because the town has been

promised the $350,000 state grant. Town officials estimate the project would

cost the owner of a house assessed at $100,000 about $41 in additional taxes

in 1997, with the cost decreasing each year after that as the debt is paid

off.