Albion library voters approve reduced board

Hoag circulation jumps 30 percent in first full year

ALBION – Voters on Monday approved eliminating two trustees positions for the Hoag Library of the Swan Library Association. The board now has nine members, down from 11.

Voters also elected three trustees – John Andrews, Karie Deegan and Carol Miller – to four-year positions. There were five candidates in the election and 123 voters. Andrews and Deegan each received 77 votes and Miller, 68. The other candidates included Sandra Walter, 62 votes, and Natalie McCue, 54.

The library added two seats about a decade ago when it was working on a new building. The board at the time thought two additional seats would help with the workload for the volunteer organization. The new library opened in July 2012.

The board has had some vacancies since then and needed to appoint people due to openings and a lack of candidates at elections, including the election a year ago.

The board now includes seven elected trustees and two who are appointed, one by the mayor of the village of Albion and the other by the president of the Board of Education. The board members on Monday re-elected Kevin Doherty to serve as board president.

The Library Association had its annual meeting on Monday. The new library led to a record-breaking year for circulation with 120,957 in 2013. That was up by 30 percent from 93,089 in 2012, when Hoag was open six months of the year. In 2011, the last full year at the former Swan Library, circulation was 77,019.

The library budget totals $685,260 in 2014, which is up 0.9 percent from the $678,978 in 2013. The library is proposing to receive $667,070 in taxes, which is a 2.0 percent increase from the $654,000 in 2013. Voters in Albion Central School will vote on $667,070 during the May 20 budget vote from noon to 8 p.m. at the elementary school conference room.

The Library Association will step up its efforts to sell the former library building, a historic site and former mansion at the corner of East State and Main streets. It plans to first work with a real estate firm specializing in historic sites. Doherty said keeping the building costs the library about $25,000 a year for maintenance, utilities and insurance.

The library also needs to fill a vacancy with its executive director. Doherty and the board said a new director should be in place this summer.