By Joan Goodchild, Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – On Oct. 18, voters rejected a measure to approve a temporary debt exclusion of nearly $11 million that would have been used to fund a portion of a proposed renovation and expansion of the town's public library.
The outcome was nearly split evenly with 3,158 voting no and 3,000 voting in favor of the exclusion. Approximately 27 percent of the town's registered voters turned out at the polls to weigh in, according to Town Clerk Sandra Wright.
The vote came after a Special Town Meeting (STM) Sept. 26 in which Town Meeting members approved a motion to appropriate funding for the project and then bring the debt exclusion question to the voters.
The $18.7 million proposed renovation and expansion plans included maintaining a section of the building constructed in 1903 and replacing an addition built in 1979. The plans also called for adding on to the current building by using adjacent property the town purchased earlier this year from the Shrewsbury Federal Credit Union. The temporary exclusion would have funded only a portion of the project – town officials also expected to receive a $7.96 million grant from the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program to fund the balance.
Library Director Ellen Dolan said she was disappointed in the results.
“There were so many people at the post-election gathering. We were disappointed and surprised, but this is what democracy is about,” she said. “The voters clearly exercised their rights.”
Dolan said she and her staff were “extremely grateful” to the approximately 100 volunteers who helped get the word out about the library project prior to the vote.
“The trustees and building committee will now need to reassess, in the next few weeks, what to do next,” Dolan said.
Brian Austin, a member of Committee for a Smaller Library, a group who had opposed the Oct. 18 measure, said of the outcome, “The town isn's ready for something this large. A lot of this had to do with the economy and the size of the project.”
Residents using the library Oct. 22 had mixed feelings about the results.
Tom Biggins said he was upset by the outcome and thought “complacency and a sense that the measure would pass easily” kept more “yes” voters from turning out.
“The library is the busiest building in town,” Biggins said. “Any time you come here, it's a mad-house. This should be our crown jewel in the center of town and improving it would only increase our property values and add to the dimension of the area.”
Another voter, who declined to give his name, disagreed and said he voted against the measure because “the town simply can's afford it.”
“This isn's the time to be funding an $18 million library renovation,” he said, noting he thinks the current facility is fine the way it is. “With the economy in the shape it is now, I don's know why anyone would think it is a good idea to vote yes to anything that asks us to cough up more taxes. The voters clearly said “enough spending.””
Biggins, a 17-year resident of the town, said he thought the project would still earn a yes at some point in the future.
“There seems to be a pattern in town where they say no the first time and then say yes later. It happened with Floral School, it happened with the high school. We'sl eventually get this to happen.”