LML's Budget Passes, Two Trustees Re-Elected

On Lindy residents turned out to cast their ballots in 's .

They to pass the proposed $4.2 million 2012-13 budget featuring a 1.26 tax-levy.

They also re-elected two trustees who ran in the April 3 unopposed: Bob Becker and Bob Shetty.

(For more information about the specifics of the budget and about the two trustees, click and see the accompanying PDF.)

"I think it shows a great deal of community support of what we're doing and where we're going," LML Director Peter Ward told Lindenhurst Patch. "And the re-election of Mr. Becker and Mr. Shetty shows the community's confidence in their ability and role in managing the direction of the library.

"Our goal now is to live up to that confidence, and do not only a good job for today, but a great job for tomorrow," he added.

Reading for Life
To that end one of the library's missions for this year is to create life-long readers.

"Studies have show that readers make better citizens," Ward said. "So the most important thing a piblic library could do is to create life-long readers, to get young people reading into adulthood."

To do that Ward explained that the LML will be promoting reading by having more author visits, book discussions and book-related events.

These activities will be in addition to the wide breadth of programs and services the library currently offers.

"This will be a central focus this year. However, we'll be adding these to existing programs that we have," the director said. "We'll still also have our eye on all of those programs and services that the community needs and has come to expect, such as the information technology services we offer online."

Loan Ability Expanding
And soon the LML will be able to offer residents the ability to not only borrow books and materials online from the library in Lindenhurst and other libraries across Suffolk County, but to also borrow from libraries in Nassau County.

"Within the next month people will be able to make inter-library loans online from Suffolk and now Nassau," Ward said.

Capital Improvements
This year the library is also embarking upon a five-year capital improvement plan, and it comes as a result of recommendations outlined in a recent report it received as a result of a building inspection required by New York state.

Because the library is considered to be a building, it's required to do these inspections much like the district is under NYS education law, explained Ward.

"The money for these repairs and upgrades are coming out of a separate capital project fund altogether," he said.

The fund was established years ago, and is funded through a portion of the library's fund balance that's transferred by action of the LML board, the director added.

First up in that plan is the replacement of the HVAC units on the roof of the library.

"That's really the major one," said Ward. "They're about 20 years old, and they're done."

The RFPs have already been sent out for the project.

"That's to get a project manager to get the project going," Ward said. "Probably in about six months, maybe later, people will start to see work being done."

The reason for the lag time is the approval process required by the NYS Education Department because, again, it's considered to be a school district building, the LML director said.

The project will cost about $600,000 to $700,000, and will mainly come out of the capital improvement fund. "But we also anticipate getting some state grants to also underwrite some of that cost," he said.

Other later improvements in the plan include upgrading the fire alarm system and replacing the single-pane windows with more energy-efficient, double-pane ones, he noted.