The South Hero Library Board asks you to PLEASE VOTE YES on South Hero Town Meeting Article 7.
Article 7 on the 2017 South Hero Town Meeting ballot will ask voters to approve the restructuring of the South Hero Library Board of Trustees. The trustees have put forth this article because we believe that library governance will be more representative and more effective with ALL Board members elected by the voters of the Town of South Hero.
The current board of the South Hero Library has 2 elected members, 2 members appointed by the school board and 1 member appointed by the select board. This structure was approved by a 1974 vote of the town at a time when the Town Library and the school not only shared library space, but also shared operations. While the two libraries still share the same space, operations (including staffing and budgets) are completely independent and have been for many years. More recently, the hours of the town library have had to change so as not to overlap with those of the school so the two libraries are not even open at the same times. Their missions are also dissimilar – the school library exclusively serves the students and staff of Folsom and the South Hero Library serves the greater community.
Because of these important distinctions, we respectfully ask that you vote YES on this article to help the Library better serve its patrons and the taxpayers of South Hero.
The article reads:
Shall the legal voters of the Town of South Hero approve the separation of the school and town libraries, that currently exist as the South Hero Community Library, so that the town library will exist as a municipal library separate and apart from the school library, with the library board of trustees of the separate municipal library consisting of five members to be elected by the voters of the Town of South Hero at the annual town meeting (except that the members currently serving on the South Hero Community Library Board of Trustees shall serve out their respective present terms as members of the library board of trustees of the separate municipal library)?
Please remember to vote on March 7 and feel free to contact any of the Board members with questions on this article or other library issues.
Important Dates:
March 4 : Town Meeting (informational), Folsom School, 9 am to 2 pm
March 7 : Town Meeting Day (Australian Ballot), South Hero Town Office, 7 am to 7 pm
southherolibrary.org 