Vision Statement Building Program Facts About The Library Committee Reports

Ossining Library Expansion Committee Finance Subcommittee Report

to the Committee on the Whole May 13, 2002 Members; David Oettinger, Stuart Kahan, Tom McArdle

The finance subcommittee met and identified three funding sources for any library expansion; 1) Bond Issue 2) Government (Federal) Grant 3) Donations.

Bond Issue

It is clear that in any circumstance going to the public for a bond issue would be a primary source of funding for any new expansion. Therefore, any plans for a new building should keep this in mind. Future activities of the school board must also be taken into account. They are going to the public this month with a $20 million bond issue, if they do so again in the same timeframe as a library issue, than one of us may loose out.

Government Grant

This source of funding should not be overlooked. There are several Federal programs that Ossining may qualify for. This issue needs to be looked into further to identify specific programs and timeframes. However, because of the nature of government programs, grant writing and applications would have to be done by the library's professional staff, volunteer groups associated with the library would not qualify.

Donations

There appears to be general agreement that private donations represent a significant source of potential funding. Any sort of substantial fund raising would require setting up a 501(C)3 corporation. Some of the questions that came up during our discussions remain unanswered. They are;

  1. Is there enough volunteer interest to organize, and operate a foundation?
  2. Should any foundation exist only for a building campaign, or should it continue in perpetuity to raise funds for programming?
  3. Should the library set up a joint foundation with the school board, or should they go it alone?