Oct 31, 2014 2 min read

I am writing this letter to ask the voters of Chartiers Township to vote no to the question of raising our township taxes by 2 mills for the Chartiers-Houston Community Library.

To small areas such as ours, a library is not a needed expense. It is a luxury. Libraries are just one thing going by the wayside because of technology. Everyone has a computer, iPad or smartphone. Students don’t use the library because they have the means to track down information at their fingertips, and it is really an expense we all have to pay for just a few patrons.

The Chartiers-Houston School District owns the building that houses the library and have basically washed their hands of any support for it. Do you really want to be responsible for an old building in Houston owned by the school district?

Chartiers Township has shown that people will support the library, as they did Sunday at a great spaghetti dinner. Supporters of the referendum say that $30 per year is not too much to pay. It isn’t the $30, it’s the principle involved. Supporting or donating to the library is one thing, but making it mandatory that we pay with a tax increase is wrong.

I will send a check for $30, and sign up for volunteering a few hours a week, but it will be because I want to, not because I have to.

Sue Shuba

Chartiers Township