Parkland Library Seeks Signatures for Voter Referendum

Parkland Community Library volunteers began the process Tuesday of collecting signatures for the November referendum on library funding that could determine whether the library breaks ground on a new building in March.

The signatures are needed so that the referendum question—do you favor adjusting the Parkland Community Library annual tax to 0.2978 mills—can get on the Nov. 5 ballot for voters to have their say. 

If the new, higher .2978 mill tax is approved, residents would pay $29.78 per $100,000 of assessed property value to fund the Parkland Community Library.

Currently residents pay .1 mill to fund the library, which serves Upper Macungie, South Whitehall and North Whitehall townships and a section of Allentown that is part of the Parkland School District.

For 15 years, residents paid .3 mills, but that rate was recalculated by the Parkland School District earlier this year as a result of county-wide property reassessments. 

Had the district, which collects the tax, not done so, the library would have seen a cash windfall that would have allowed it to proceed with its construction plans. The district, however, had argued that it was carrying out taxpayers' wishes in adjusting the library millage since it was to be used to maintain the library not to fund new construction.

The library challenged the district's move, but a Lehigh County judge ruled in favor of the Parkland School District's decision to lower the library tax to .1 mill.

Parkland School District's decision and the court ruling put a snag in the library's plan to break ground this fall on a new building on Ruppsville Road in Upper Macungie. 

The library has been hoping for years to build a new structure, saying it has outgrown its cramped quarters in South Whitehall. It had kicked off its community fundraising campaign in 2011 but the project had not been able to follow its initial timetable.

Library Executive Director Debbie Jack said if voters approve the referedum, the library would be able to break ground on its new building in March. She pointed out that the tax has not been raised since 1998, when voters approved the original library tax in a referendum.

In all, the library is required to get 870 signatures from residents of the Parkland School District to get the referendum on the ballot.

Volunteers will be going door-to-door as well as collecting signatures this week at the Friends of the Parkland Community Library Used Book Sale at Asbury United Methodist Church in South Whitehall.

Anyone interested in collecting signatures can contact Debbie Jack at 610-398-1361 ext 22 or jackd@parklandlibrary.org.