For those of you who haven’t heard the results, the Millstadt Library’s School District Annexation Referendum did not pass. The Yes votes were 858 and the No votes were 1,834.
The breakdown of in district and out of district as well as precinct by precinct results have not been official yet, but from information that has been circulated, it seems clear that things will remain as they are.
So, what does this mean?
It means that as we said about Plan A and Plan B, that Plan B goes into effect.
- That library cards and all of their wonderful assets remain only readily accessible to Village residents (non-resident cards are still available for purchase)
- We forfeit $1.2 million back to Illinois (that the state thought we were more than in need of)
- There is no new community space and educational center for children, teens and adults
- Our current facility and ability to house collections, provide services, and host programs are still insufficient for our community
- We will start our funding process all over again
- We don’t know when a new library will happen
Which is true, we don’t know when a new library will happen, but it will.
As we said yesterday, no matter the outcome, we will move forward. We have to. Story time is still on Wednesday. Someone has to be there to move the furniture so we can help children learn and grow with story time! And we still love every minute of it!
It will continue to be tight in our little library, but we will continue to make it work because we don’t do it for us – we do it for the teens playing a board game out from the heat, the kids out on their bikes participating in the community scavenger hunt, the adults meeting up for knitting and crochet night, the children for story time and crafts, and of course, for every single person who walks in our doors with whatever request they have, we always do our best to try to help. Because we’re a library. A collection of people that support each other.
If you think no one uses the library, or its been a while since you've been here, we'd really like you to come by and give us a try. We're not the library you remember. We're an open, friendly place full of laughter and, more often than not, children.
We want to thank everyone who called, sent messages, and stopped by today. Your support means the world to us.
Off to the next adventure!
I recall at the info sharing meeting someone mentioning the Village may build a new City Hall possibly feeing up the current building which the Library could then utilize the whole building, of course negotiated with the Village. Seems like a potential plan B.