Parkland Library Takes School Board to Court

Lawyers for Parkland Community Library said in a Friday evening release that they have filed a complaint in Lehigh County Court in an attempt to block the proposed lowering of the library tax by the Parkland School District.

A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in front of Judge Michele A. Varricchio at the Lehigh County Courthouse.

"The filing of the requested injunction notes plaintiff's rights as a public library are directly affected by the improper actions undertaken by the defendant with regard to the illegal reduction of the special library tax. It further declares a declaratory judgment regarding the Public Library Code, the Taxpayer Relief Act (Act 1) and the special library tax will resolve the actual controversy between the parties," Samuel F. Feldman, the library's legal counsel, said in the release.

On May 21, Parkland school board directors voted to lower the proposed special library tax pegged for the Parkland Community Library from .3 mill to a proposed .1 mill.

"Respectfully, the Board of Directors of Parkland Community Library urges Parkland School District Board of Directors to reconsider its position so that both Parkland School District and Parkland Community Library may use their limited resources to maintain the quality services offered to the community — and not subject taxpayers to the costs of litigation," Feldman said in the release.

The library tax was approved by voters in a 1998 referendum.

Final Parkland School Board action on the library tax matter is scheduled for June 25, the same night a vote is scheduled for the final 2013-14 school budget.

The Parkland Community Library, currently at 4422 Walbert Ave. in South Whitehall, serves Upper Macungie, South Whitehall and North Whitehall townships and a section of Allentown that is part of the Parkland School District.

Lawyers for the library said the planned reduction in millage will further postpone the construction of the new library project planned in Upper Macungie.

Last month, library officials announced that they planned to break ground for the new library this fall.

"Our budget amounts to less than 1 percent  of the size of PSD's annual budget," said Karl Siebert, Parkland Community Library Board president. "We have outgrown our library and our premises during the same years that Parkland School District has built a new elementary school and a new high school. Both organizations have felt the pressures of a more densely populated region. While the district and county taxes have increased significantly since 1998, our 0.3 tax millage rate from the 1998 referendum has remained flat. 

"The current library was already undersized the day it was built, which makes the need for a new facility more acute and funding shortfall even greater.  We simply must have a legal ruling on what’s right. I repeat: Our tax rate has remained the same for 15 years," Siebert said.

they are not opposed to the construction of a new library. However, they argued that they are carrying out taxpayers' wishes in adjusting the library millage because voters through the 1998 referendum wanted their tax dollars to only be used to maintain the library.

"The voters approved a special library tax for the maintenance of the Library, not to create a building fund to construct a new building," the statement said.