Funding Gilmanton library by petition will require 3/5 vote

GILMANTON — Selectboard Chairman Rachel Hatch said Thursday that a petitioned warrant article that would authorize the town to spend $50,000 per year over three years for operating costs for the Year Round Library will need a three-fifths majority vote for approval at the ballot session at this year’s annual Town Meeting.

Hatch said she was mistaken on Monday night when she told a group of about 50 residents who came to attend a public hearing about the library funding proposals that if it was petitioned by a group of voters, it would only take a simple majority to pass.

“If it’s greater than $100,000 it must be treated like a bond,” said Hatch, adding that she had confirmed this with the Gilmanton town attorney.

On Monday, selectmen opted by consensus not to include the Year-Round Library in their 2016 budget proposal.

Instead, the separate article proposes to authorize the payments of $150,000 to the year-round library but to only raise and appropriate through taxation $50,000 for 2016.

Unlike previous years, town voters will be able to determine whether or not the GYRL would be able to depend on town funding for more than one year. In previous years, it was one year of operations money, usually between $40,000 and $45,000 annually or nothing.

Proponents of the petitioned warrant article say that knowing they will be able to stay open for three years allows them to plan programming into the next year without having to wait until annual Town Meeting in March to know what their funding needs are.

Opponents either don’t want the library funded though the town coffers at all or want to see supporters continue to petition the town annually for operating money, citing a promise made to them years ago by the founders that library administrators would never come to the town for operating money.

Gilmanton voters will also have a choice on this year’s ballot because there is another petitioned warrant article that would fund the Year-Round Library for one year only. If the $150,000 request passes, the vote on the other article would be null and void, meaning there is no possible way the library will be double funded.

In addition, Hatch said that voters should be aware that if the $150,000 request passes, the last two increments of $50,000 each will become part of the default budget in 2017 and 2018.

She said she personally supports the passage of Article 4 and was one of two selectmen, along with Michael Jean, who had initially supported putting it on the ballot as a warrant article that came from the board.

Selectman Don Guarino was firm in his opinion that any article on the town warrant regarding the Year-Round Library should be be petitioned by supporters and not come from the board and after considerable discussion Monday night, all three agreed it would be a petition or nothing.

All sides agree that the issue has been dividing the town for about 10 years, which is when the GYRL trustees first came to the town for operating money. A not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) private agency, the library has a board of directors whose meetings are open to the public and whose minutes are available for review.

There are two other public libraries in Gilmanton — one in the Four Corners portion of town and one in the Iron Works portion of town — but neither can open year round because of a lack of heat and plumbing. They both receive a nominal level of financial support from the town.