Goshen Public Library & Historical Society | 203 Main St Goshen, NY 10924 | Phone: 845.294.6606 | Fax: 845.294.7158 | RCLS Member
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Quality of life
By plnkh | November 26, 2007
I grew up on Staten Island, the forgotten borough of NYC, the one that still had a couple of working farms in the early 1960s (can you believe it?) In NYC you don’t get to vote on schools, libraries, firehouses, sewers - they are all covered in the tax bill along with a lot of other things that make communities great - playgrounds, parks, pools, museums, public transportation, garbage collection. In a city it is understood that the government is going to provide a wealth of services to be shared by the residents because it makes sense, and there isn’t enough room (or money) for everyone to provide everything for themselves, and a lot of folks can’t.
Lots of city transplants, like me, are mystified when they move up to the suburbs of Orange County. You may find yourself in a town that has no school district (like Wallkill) or library (Minisink), or your school district may belong to a neighboring town even though your town has one (Sugar Loaf/Warwick); your mail may come from another town’s post office, and you are empowered to vote on a host of things covered by law that you don’t understand.
Most of us transplants moved here for a better quality of life for ourselves and our children: a slower pace, unpaved and undeveloped open space; a safe community; good schools with a lower pupil/teacher ratio; a library to support self education and leisure time activity. That quality of life brings with it its own burden of responsibility. You can either trust the elected officials who run your municipality, schools and library; or you have to educate yourselves on all of the issues so you are an informed voter.
In March you will be asked to vote on a tax levy for a new library building. The building project has been evolving for 14 years, and the Board is unanimous in its belief that it represents the best plan to meet the community’s needs for the foreseeable future. It will be a minimum of 3 years after a positive vote before the building will be open to the public. The building will be paid for over 30 years, so that new families and businesses moving into the school district in that time span will share the cost of the tax levy (which will be redistributed annually based on the school district’s ratables). If construction is deferred, the cost of the proposed building will escalate at an anticipated 8% annually.
Growth is inexorable. In 1994 construction costs were $85 per sq. ft. In 2007 they are projected at over $400. In the past 10 years the student population of the school district has grown 30%. In the past 6 years the population of Orange County has grown more than 10%. Those of us who live on “country” roads are painfully aware of the houses that have sprung up in the past several years and the increased traffic whizzing by our homes. We shoulder the cost of schools, libraries, fire houses and sewer plants for the same reason that we came here - they improve the quality of our community.
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