Voters Give Thumbs-Up on Stark County District Library Levy

Voters gave the thumbs-up to Issue 42 from the Stark County District Library Issue, according to unofficial election results.

The levy was set to pass with 58,023 votes to 50,940, according to unofficial numbers from the Stark County Board of Elections Tuesday night.

The 1 mill renewal levy and a 0.7 mill increase will cost the owner of a $100,000 home $52.10 a year.

"We want to thank everyone who went and supported the library," said SCDL Executive Director Tena Wilson that night. "We value the public trust and we will be working hard to continue to provide excellent library programs and materials. Mostly we just want to say 'thank you.'"

Wilson said she attended on Tuesday night a library watch party that was buzzing with excitement.

"We had our library board and those people who had worked so hard on the levy, some of our customers and quite a few of our staff watching closely and hopeful that the percentage would remain the way it was," she said.

Linda Dahl, public information manager at the Stark County District Library, said the library was forced to close a branch, lay off staff, freeze positions and reduce the library's materials budget when faced with a 32 percent reduction in state dollars in 2009.

"What we intend to do with the (levy dollars) is to restore our materials budget to where it should be and restore our drive-up window service," Dahl told North Canton Patch in September. "We'll be making sure our technology is well maintained and is as good as we can provide."

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