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[quote="anon-97on"]Wow, this topic has generated a lot of mis-information and partial truths.

Full disclosure.  I am neutral on the library.  Have not donated, do not believe it should be paid for with public money and don't think we need it.  But not opposed to private efforts to raise the money and build it by those who favor it.

That said:

1) Some of the posters don’t seem to understand how the library funding works.  By state law, a minimum portion of our municipal property taxes must go to fund the library.  Cranbury consistently has funded, in recent history, with the minimum allowed by law.  So for the poster who claimed that it will cost us more taxes for books, etc., that’s simply not true.  As it stands, the library has a far larger collection than they even have room to display and the state-mandated minimum funding generates a significant annual surplus.  So even if you are against the library in the digital age, Cranbury has no legal choice to withhold the level of funding it currently provides.

2) On the other hand, there were a couple of half-truths by supporters about it all being privately funded.  About half of the money they consider to have collected to date toward the new building is actually assuming the use of the surplus they have built up from the annual tax revenues they receive.  So it would be partially publically funded, so to speak, but with money that is legally earmarked for the library.  Secondly, while there hope is to fully collect private donations, plus additional surplus, to pay for the new library, and while the existing state-mandated funding is enough to cover annual operating costs of the new facility, it’s not clear that the state funding will be enough to permanently maintain the new facility from a capital maintenance and improvement perspective.  Do they have enough annual surplus in the operating budget after they open the new building to fund a long term reserve fund to cover future roof repairs, HVAC replacement, etc.

3) Additionally, it’s taken them 4+ years to get about half the money they currently estimate they need for the new building, and that includes a surplus they have been building up for many years before that.  It’s a poorly-kept secret that many supporters of the project, who are quick to say it’s being privately funded as a defense against detractors now, fully hope that if they raise sufficient funds they Township will ultimately step in to close the gap.  Otherwise it may be another decade or more before they raise enough money unless they secure a “whale” donator.

4) Even if the entire physical library is covered by private donation and the surplus, it’s also another open secret that the project really needs the extension of the parking lot and road to Park Place, as outlined in the Master Plan, to be effective.  And that is not contemplated in the fundraising amount.  Supporters will say they don’t need it to build the library, despite most of the renderings showing it.  But anyone who has spent any time at that parking lot on a school day knows it will be a quagmire without the Park Place extension and additional parking.  Their secret expectation is the Township, prompted by the new building, prioritizes that project.  All that said, it’s actually a reasonable primary, new library or not.

5) It needs to be understood they only have Concept Drawings at this point in coming up with their $3.xMM cost estimate.  Those haven’t been fully drafted or bid.  The actual cost could be materially greater.

6) As for the argument about school enrollment, it’s silly to look at the middle school grades and compare to the lower grades as say enrollment is going down.  The other poster was correct, the youngest grades enrollment is up from the higher-primary school grades, and those grades are gaining students every year too.  All that happened was a predictable halo effect of the housing market recession.  When prices went down, empty-nesters stopped selling so fewer young families moved in.  Now that housing has started to recover, sales have increased again and enrollment is trending up.[/quote]

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