Port Chester Village Board OKs Funds For Library To Restore Service

The last night approved $23,000 from its contingency fund in the 2012-2013 budget to increase spending for the , with the condition that the library restore operating hours that were .

While village trustees, in general, supported the funding for the library, Trustees Saverio Terenzi and Bart Didden said they felt the Board of Trustees was being made out to be scapegoats for the library operating board's decision to cut evening hours on Tuesdays and Saturday afternoon hours.

Terenzi said that during the budget process the village had committed to providing additional funds for the library once the new fiscal year started. He called the decision by the library to cut hours as of June 1 premature and unnessary.

Although he supported funding for the library, Terenzi cast the lone "no" vote in the 5-1 decision Monday night to approve the contingency funding for the library because he did not agree with the way the matter was handled by the library trustees.

In a letter to the village government, library Board of Trustees President Roger Herman said the library board "hopes to be able to restore some services" if the village board approved the additional funding.

"When we appeared before the villlage board, surprise was expressed that the additional $23,000 we requested would cause any effect upon a $1.5 million budget," Herman said in his letter to Port Chester Mayor Dennis Pilla. "However, this $23,000 amount represents 29 percent of our budget not committed to mandates. Health insuranc and retirment costs, for example, absorb nearly 20 percent of the library's entire budget."

The village trustees specifically added a clause to the measure approving the additional funds that the library must restore the cut hours in return for being given the money.