The March 10 presidential primary election ballot Tuesday, March 10, will include a request from the Dorr Township Library for 0.6 mill for 10 years.
Dorr Library Board President Rachel Vote appeared before the Township Board Thursday night to answer questions about the proposal and to assure voters that the millage vote is not being funded by any taxpayers’ dollars, but instead by private donors and the Friends of the Library organization.
“The entire millage election is being funded by the Friends of Library and private donations,” she said, keenly aware some voters last year were upset public money was used to pay for a special election on a one-mill request that was defeated.
She noted that one of the private donations came from the Gun Lake Casino.
Vote added this promise: “If the millage doesn’t pass before the end of the year, the library will close.”
Chandler Stanton, a member of the Dorr Township Zoning Board of Appeals, asked why the library couldn’t stay open with reduced hours and reduced services.
“We already have made cuts and reduced hours,” Vote replied.
She said if the request is defeated March 10, the Library Board still could come back again in either the August primary or November general election. But if it fails again, she said, the library’s doors will be closed.
The library was granted three-tenths of a mill in the past, but that levy has been rolled back to 0.289 mill by the Headlee Amendment and it has expired. The Library Board in 2018 decided to ask voters for a half-mill increase to 0.789, but that proposal was defeated in the August 2018 primary. The library came back with a one-mill request in a special August 2019 election, but was rebuffed again, this time by a smaller margin.
The library has operated on a yearly budget of $198,000, with a $50,000 contribution from the township annually.
Township Trustee John Tuinstra, who actively campaigned against the library millage, again proposed asking for two separate millage levies, one a reinstatement of the 0.289 and the other for only a slight increase.
Vote responded by saying, “If we only reinstated, we would be operating on a budget deficit.”
Tuinstra said, “If voters say no (March 10), break it up into two separate proposals. People would be very likely to support a reinstatement.”
At the start of the meeting, the board received a letter signed by members of Mrs. Kristiana Zondervan’s third-grade class urging passage of the millage request.
Township Clerk Debbie Sewers said more than 250 voters already have turned in absentee ballots for the presidential primary.
In other business at Thursday night’s meeting, the Township Board:
- Was told by Treasurer Jim Martin, a member of the special Roads Committee, that this year’s projects will include paving 22nd Street to the north, repaving two miles of 24th Street and sharing the costs with bordering Salem Township, and a chip and seal job on eight-tenths of a mile on 140th Avenue.
- Was told by Martin that a check for about $105,000 in state revenue sharing is expected soon, putting the township budget “in the black.”
- Scheduled a budget workshop on the 2020-21 fiscal year budget for 6 p.m. Monday, March 2.
- Agreed to pay a bill for $5,146 to Allegan County Recycling, the balance of what the township owes for 2019.
- Agreed to have four miles of gravel to be applied on 140th Avenue, 23rd Street and 144th Avenue, purchased from the Allegan County Road Commission at $14,000 to $18,000 per mile.
- Approved the appointment of Josh Wheeler as new safety officer for the Fire Department, succeeding the retiring Tom Sidebotham. Chief Gary Fordham said all other officers will remain the same.
