Residents ask council to keep boro library open Councilwoman proposes to close library to save tax dollars BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer EATONTOWN - Residents pleaded with Borough Council members last week to take the proposal of closing the Eatontown Public Library off the table. Councilwoman Victoria Rau presented a proposal in March to close the library facility on Broad Street as a measure to save taxpayer money. Rau recommended that employees from the "crowded" borough hall offices relocate to the library and borough residents use the Monmouth County Library. "The library is a pillar of the community," Eve Damrose of Villa Place said at an April 2 workshop meeting. "I think you will damage the community if you take away the library." Former library employee Joanna Charnick agreed. "My heart is in that library," Charnick said. "I know [borough hall] is crowded, but there has got to be a better way than what you are thinking of doing." According to Charnick, the borough library is continually frequented by residents seeking personal assistance that the county library does not have. "We are not talking about figures here," Charnick said. "We are talking about people we know." Council began discussing the possibility of closing the library at a March 4 workshop meeting, when Rau suggested using the site to create additional space for borough employees. "The whole point is to try to save taxpayer money," Rau said. She proposed for the current library structure to close to create additional room for borough employees currently housed in the "overcrowded" borough hall building. Rau explained that without finding additional space for borough employees, the borough would have to construct a "costly" extension at borough hall. "When doing all the figures and research and homework, we are talking about maybe [saving] $2 million," if the current library space is used to house borough employees, Rau said. "We have a lot of services in this town and everyone loves the services," Rau said. "We keep adding on good services, but [they] cost money. "So we have to look for where we can cut and where we can save money. This is where the library came into play," Rau said. Rau explained that the Shrewsbury branch of the Monmouth County Library is in close proximity to the borough. "I don't have a dislike for the library," Rau said. "It may have sounded that way and I know the mayor would say it's an institution, but at this point we have a dual library system, the Monmouth County Library and the Eatontown library." According to Eatontown Business Administrator George Jackson, the borough pays approximately $320,000 annually to the Monmouth County Library for residents to use the county library without having to pay a fee. Jackson explained that without the annual payment, residents would have to pay $100 to join the county's library system. Rau said that there are more Eatontown residents registered at the Monmouth County Library than at the borough library. Approximately 2,400 residents are registered at the borough's library while some 4,800 residents are registered at the county library, according to Jackson. Library board of trustees member Nancy Palermo asked the council at the meeting if residents could be given the opportunity to vote on Rau's proposal before any action is taken. "What can we as taxpayers and residents of Eatontown do to stop this?" Palermo asked. Councilman Carl Sohl explained that prior to a final decision on the library's future, a nonbinding referendum would be put before the public for a vote in order to gauge the opinion of residents. "Before anything would be done in this situation, there would be some kind of nonbinding referendum to let us know where the town is because we may be going in a direction that the people do not want us to go in," Sohl said. Councilman John Schiels, who also acts as head of the finance committee, said that while crafting the borough's municipal budget, many borough functions where scrutinized for potential cost savings. "There were questions asked about a lot of functions within the town itself," Schiels said. "And I think [Rau] asked a lot of the same questions and I think this one got a life of its own and lived. "I think the members of council are being proactive in asking, Is what we have in town appropriate and are we paying appropriate rates on them?" Schiels said.