The New City and West Nyack Library budget votes and trustee elections take place tomorrow. Five candidates are seeking election to the New City Library Board of Trustees. Voters will cast their ballots on the New City Library’s of approximately $5 million and West Nyack Library’s budget of just over $1 million for 2013.
Clarkstown Central School District registered voters in Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 can cast ballots from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Residents are already registered if they have voted in any annual or special election in the past four years.
The New City Library is the only one of the three polling places where voters can cast ballots for the budget and candidates. Those voters must be registered in Districts 1 or 3. Voters registered in District 2 go to the Congers Elementary School to vote on the budget. They are eligible to vote for trustee candidates but must travel to the New City Library to do so. Voters registered in District 4 go to the West Nyack Library to vote on the budget only. There is no trustee election for that library this year.
Two trustee are incumbents, two are petition candidates and the library’s nominating committee recommended the fifth candidate.
Incumbents Martus Granirer and Olahannan K. Poulose are both running for their second, three-year term. The library’s nominating committee recommended Anthony Feliciano and the two incumbent trustees to the full board. Frank Grandel, Jr. and Joseph Reiter are the petition candidates. Grandel and Reiter submitted petitions signed by 20 New City Library members, which made them eligible to have their names added to the ballot.
The third seat up for election is that of Trustee Douglas Albrecht, who decided not to run for another term.
Each of the five candidates submitted a letter of intent, which is online and also available at the New City Library. The letter of intent explains their reasons for running for trustee. All of the candidates are New City residents except for Poulose, who lives in Congers. The New City Library serves New City, Congers and Bardonia.
Feliciano is employed by NYC Transit as a mechanic/crane operator. He is shop steward for Transit Workers Union Local 100 and a loan officer/assistant manager for Empirt 207 Federal Credit Union. Grandel is a New City small business owner and Granirer is an attorney. Poulose also works for NYC Transit as a supervisor and Reiter is a Clarkstown Police Department sergeant.
In September, the Board of Trustees approved a proposed budget for 2013 of $5,035,150 for the New City Library and $1,096,343 for the West Nyack Library. The budgets maintain the two-percent increase allowed by the state property tax cap.
The two budgets and trustee election are separate votes. The vote will be conducted using paper ballots. The public is welcome to attend the vote count, which takes place at the New City Library after voting ends at 9 p.m.
Voters must go to two separate locations in the New City Library to vote on both issues.
"The Budget vote is conducted by the Clarkstown School District as our tax collecting body," Library Director Chuck McMorran said. "The Board of Trustee vote is conducted by the library."
The snow date for the election is Wednesday, Dec. 21.
