Nov 8, 2014 2 min read

It comes as no surprise that voters in Chartiers Township would be against a tax increase to fund the Chartiers-Houston Community Library. First, the library is housed in the school district’s building in the area of Moninger. The grounds have been owned by the school district since the Moninger School was active, maybe the late 1930s. The school was torn down and the library building constructed by the support of the district, township and Houston taxpayers, including private supporters.

While the plea to approve a library tax was defeated Tuesday by township voters, there still should be hope for the library to survive, not in Moninger but in the hall of the Chartiers Township Volunteer Fire Department, or the newly-constructed community building near the high school. The fire department hall would be ideal, with sufficient parking. The community center, staffed with a manger and maintenance personnel, may better be used for the library instead of a rental hall, since so many hotels along Racetrack Road have conference rooms. In either case, the library would meet the needs of its patrons.

Any financial support the board of supervisors in Chartiers gives to the library, now or in the future, is not necessarily tax dollars from residents. The board receives a host fee from the local landfill, and money from drilling operations. Using some of this revenue to support of the community’s library could be something the township’s taxpayers would appreciate.

The school district is a merger of the township and Houston, thus making the current library a joint business and supported by all three taxing bodies. Moving the library from the hands of the school district into the hands of the township would give all taxing bodies the opportunity to set the policy of support for the future.

None of the taxing bodies should consider closing the library.

Joann Diesel

Washington

Diesel is a former Chartiers Township supervisor.