Shorewood-Troy Library Referendum Defeated

On the big screen, the numbers told the story of a wide margin.

Shorewood-Troy Library district residents voted nearly 4-to-1 Tuesday against a referendum that would have boosted the tax bill for the average district homeowner by about $215 a year.

Officials wanted the money to build a new $21 million library.

The referendum failed by a count of 2,301 to 605.

"We're at Cemeno's looking at the big screen," said Bob Stahl, president of the Shorewood-Troy Library trustees. "It's disappointing. We knew it would be an uphill fight in this economy to get a referendum passed.

"But we thought the argument and the need was there, that this new library would benefit the schools, the community and ultimately the property owners. A lot of work was put into this thing. That's what makes it so disappointing.

"But that's what a democracy is for—we got the word."

Stahl said it's back to the drawing board for library trustees.

"The whole board will look at the vote results," he said. "From that study, they'll make some decisions as a board—figure out what the plan moving forward should be."

Stahl said when the current library was built in 1985 it handled between 6,000 and 7,000 check-outs annually. Now, he said the total number of items checked out on a yearly basis is at 175,000.

"We're at capacity," Stahl said. "It's one-in and one-out. That's the reality. We do have a very good library. The staff is wonderful. It's just splitting at the seams. We'll continue to do the best we can for the community."