Vote YES for Your Library—a Community Treasure Worth Keeping
Portage Lake District Library
Our community is fortunate to have a treasure in our midst: the Portage Lake District Library. It’s a place where you and your family can borrow books, CDs and DVDs, where you can use a computer and access the Internet for free. It’s a place where you can find out almost anything, using free databases including a new foreign languages database. It’s also a place where children can listen to stories, find help with their schoolwork or meet the library’s resident pet—a lovely little tarantula. Adults can enjoy free films and concerts, meet authors, learn their community’s history—all this and more for an average cost per household of $5 to $7 a month, less than 25 cents a day.
But the library is at a crossroads. At the primary election on August 3, voters in Houghton, Chassell and Portage Township will be asked to vote on library millage renewal. The future of the library depends on the outcome.
The millage is low—less than 2 mills. That means a tax of $1.97 per thousand dollars of your property’s taxable value, this value is the smallest number on your tax bill, much less than the market value of your home. This is not a tax increase; it is actually a little less than the library has been getting for the past five years.
The library cannot operate without this millage. The support it receives from the state and other sources is negligible. Unless the millage renewal passes, the library will have to close.
Please vote yes for the library millage renewal on the August 3 ballot, and remind your family, friends and neighbors to vote.
If the millage does not pass, the library’s doors will close.
by Dennis Garver, President
Portage Lake District Library Board of Trustees
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