Tuesday, January 29, 2008
E HARTSDALE AVE SENIORS WANT BUS TO LIBRARY TILL CYBERMOBILE RESTORED
The Town Board met with residents of E Hartsdale Ave. Some seniors suggested that the bus that currently takes seniors to supermarkets also take seniors to the library--at least until the cybermobile is re-activated. Many seniors on the avenue do not have cars. This is a good idea, in my opinion. I have contacted the Commissioner & Deputy Commissioner of Parks and have asked them to consider this suggestion.
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5 comments:
Why have the bookmobile if we could get the service of the existing supermaket bus .This will save a lot of money and serve all the people better if the library is ever completed.
the way shopping is scheduled the time and days can be fit in for the library.
Think about it.One bus can serve the needs of all the seniors.
I'm a "Senior".
I still work Monday-Friday.
Will there be bus service on Saturday?
Do I have to go shopping too if I want to use the Library?
I can understand that the Town Board is facing misdirected pressure while the Public wants to believe the Library's "story".
However, the facts exist, although the Public is lazy about going to the source directly, the Library Budget, which support the conclusion that the Library Trustees chose to cut the most popular service and not make cuts to other, less intrusive line items because no one using the Library but only the Library Board would ever realize that those areas had been cut.
The Library Trustees, volunteers, are lying to their Patrons but fortunately they know that some of them are too lazy to verify what is said or that some of them are only too happy to blame Feiner and now, the Town Board.
Last night's meeting was a joke.
But it was a victory for the absent Library Board, represented by their local surrogate Deborah Bloom whose contribution/disctinction? was to quote Trustee President Howard Jacobs almost word for word.
I ask that the Library justify their incendiary statement that the cybermobile costs $157,000 to operate when the Town Tentative Budget, the Library's 2008 Budget Request and the Library's year end Treasurer's Report all show $85,000having been spent.
To understand that politics are still alive and rather cloyingly so, Mr. Sheehan waxed about how the County did not want to assume ownership of the cybermobile because it was too expensive to operate. Mr. Sheehan, coasting on a former well-earned reputation for doing research, apparently has resorted to the trick of hiding the rotten apple in the middle of the bag and thus he gave the impression that the vehicle was too great a burden on the Library's strained finances. What Mr. Sheehan might have been mangling was a possible thought construction that: per mile, the cybermobile is a very expensive vehicle (compared to the Town's or County's vehicle fleet). However since the stops for the cybermobile are within unincorporated Greenburgh, there is very little mileage accrued.
But how much does it cost to keep the cybermobile running?
Why not look at the figure that the Library and the Town Comptroller put in their budgets.
If the number is wrong, then it would be to all parties benefit to use accurate numbers.
903.0 Equipment Repair Bureau
Library Budget Request October 1
$14,578.14 spent by September 30.
Tentative Town Budget (2008)
(reflecting the Library's "needs")
$25,019
Library Treasurer's Report December
$14,989.56
Approved Town Budget
$0
(cybermobile eliminated for 2008)
There is an odd anamoly at work here. The Library says to the Town that the Town has no business telling it how to spend its money as per State education laws.
The "Public" fired up by the Library Board wants the Town to put the cybermobile back in service.
The "Public" should instead be demanding of those who have control over their spending, the Library Trustees, that they restore cybermobile service and Sunday hours. Their decision to spend about $175,000 MORE THAN WAS SPENT IN 2007 on library materials,
is the tipping point. The new Library will not be open to the public in 2008, certainly not in October; these items are properly items that should appear in the 2009 budget. If the Library Trustees can't fulfill their obligation to make what materials they currently own available to their patrons in 2008 (cybermobile, Sunday) why should current need be held hostage to their grand scheme for 2009?
The anger should properly be directed to the Library Trustees, not the Town Board.
The bus from the recreation department is all that is needed to make those of us that do not drive.
The heck with the cybermobile.
We only had the problem getting to the library and getting back home.
Using this bus will not be a burden on the town and taxpayers,since we have the bus and a driver.
I do hope that this will be what non-drivers will need to get to use the library.
A bus to the library OR a bookmobile ... certainly both are not needed. (And I wonder if there's a justified demand for either beyond the requests of a few vocal individuals.)
Neither of the bus services are needed here in Greenburgh.
We all are looking for ways to save money but this is so obvious that many of the users are using the buses so they can save on gasoline.
This service does not have users throughout Greenburgh so why should all of GREENBURGH PAY TAXES for services that are used by a chosen few.
I live in Edgemont and I would love to save money by not using my car to go shopping and the library.
Why was this put into service for just a chosen few.
If I use para transit I pay, do these people pay for the use of the bus to go shopping.
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