Sep 26, 2014 5 min read

At the request of Chartiers Township supervisors, those who vote in the township Nov. 4 will see a ballot question about establishing a special two-mill tax on real estate to benefit and maintain Chartiers-Houston Community Library.

County solicitor Mary Lyn Drewitz evaluated the proposed referendum question and notified the board of elections and Elections Director Larry Spahr this week the question posed is a valid one that is entitled to appear on the ballot.

Bill Hill, president of the library’s board of directors and Chartiers Township’s representative on the library board, began apprising township supervisors of the library’s financial difficulties this past spring when Chartiers-Houston School District proposed eliminating a $50,000 annual allocation for the library in its 2014-15 budget year.

“The date the school board cut our legs off, so to speak, was April 22,” Hill said.

He never asked for the referendum, but requested money to help make up the library’s loss. The library is operating 45 hours per week, a minimum to maintain state funding, down from its previous 56 hours.

The township already is devoting $20,000 this year to the library, and it had no money to spare in this year’s budget, so the supervisors said they would place the matter in the hand of the voters.

When the budget crunch hit, the library had nine employees, but eight of them have resigned, some for personal reasons, one for a better job and others due to retirement. Five paid staffers are now working at the library, but when Director Millie Gray left, she was not replaced.

As president of the board of trustees, the responsibility of being in charge of the library fell to Hill, 72, who often spends 6 1/2-hour days volunteering there. “I am the stuckee,” he said, using a slang term to denote the one to whom a task or assignment defaults. “We’re not in a position to fill that job. We didn’t have the money. I feel very strongly that the library is an institution that is very important. It’s needed, and it’s wanted. If we’re going to keep the library open, we’ve got to do it right. I won’t be associated with a less-than-first-class organization.”

If the referendum passes, it would enable the library to seek a library director and have that person in place by Jan. 1, “and be in a position of stability from year to year and allow us to run a library and not be begging for money all year,” Hill said. He also put in a plug for the library’s spaghetti dinner from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, at Houston American Legion Post 902.

Hill said were it not for donations, the library would have been forced to close this month.

“We want us to be open as much as possible, have the right books and have the right computers for people,” Hill said. “As the Internet was maturing, people assume reliance on libraries is going to go away. It’s exactly the opposite. In August, 2,105 people darkened our doors.”

Jodi Noble, Chartiers Township manager, said if voters approve the referendum question, the owner of a home with a market value of $100,000 would be paying about $50 more per year in taxes beginning in 2015.

Tax millage in Chartiers is now 9.

One mill generates $56,000 for the township, so two mills would provide $112,000 for the library, Noble said.

Washington County levies 24.9 mills, and the Chartiers-Houston School District rate, according to the township website, is 119.5125.

Chartiers Township had 7,818 residents according to the 2010 U.S. Census, with more than 3,000 households, and Houston Borough had 1,296 residents and about 600 households.

The referendum is not appearing on the ballots of Houston residents. Hill said he did not have time to approach Houston Borough Council because he’s been so busy volunteering at the library, acting in his capacity of president of the board and raising money to keep the doors open.

Just because the library referendum isn’t on the ballot this fall for Houston doesn’t mean it won’t appear in a future election. “If this is approved, it would not be fair that residents of Chartiers would be asked to pay more than the residents of Houston.”

An appeal for donations via postcard was mailed to each household in the two municipalities. The campaign generated $16,000 from almost 400 households, and the Washington County Community Foundation’s online Day of Giving netted more than $8,000 for the library, up from $794 last year.

The last local referendum to appear on ballots in Washington County was in November 2011 when Peters Township voters rejected a Marcellus Shale drilling ban and related amendment to the community’s home rule charter.

The same year, Pittsburgh voters overwhelmingly chose a quarter-mill increase in property taxes devoted to the Carnegie Library system’s operation and maintenance. The main Carnegie Library in Oakland and its 18 branches anticipated receiving more than $3 million a year in revenue.