By MAUREEN PICHÉ

NORWOOD – Now that residents have voted in favor of a special tax district for the Norwood Library, trustees will be working with the county and the North Country Library System to collect the money and get the library running at full speed.

In a vote of 210 in favor and 162 against, the library district was approved Nov. 15, saving the nearly 100-year-old facility from imminent closure. Now, taxpayers in the Norwood-Norfolk School District, excluding those in the town of Norfolk, will pay a few dollars more a month in taxes to fund the library’s annual $85,000 operating budget.

Board President Phyllis McFaddin said she is relieved and pleased the voters came through, but now the real work begins.

“When we saw people pouring in to vote, we didn’t know if it was a good or a bad sign,” she said. “I was more than pleased to see how many people came to support the library.”

First, she said, the five new trustees need to learn the ropes. Simultaneously, the board will be applying for a new library charter, and that could take a while, McFaddin said.

“There’s lots of paperwork to do to get the process complete,” she said. It could be the middle of next year before everything is approved, she said.

And because the NCLS assisted two other libraries in its Lewis, Jefferson, Oswego and St. Lawrence County region (Potsdam and Oswego) through their transition into districts, McFaddin said trustees will be relying heavily on them to help collect the taxes.

“They’ll help us figure out the easiest, best way to do that,” she said, adding that proposed changes to library hours, staffing and purchases could start as soon as the new year. But, she stressed, things will be done gradually and carefully.

With the $85,000 budget, McFaddin said two part-time library staffers who were laid off will be rehired and library hours will be increased. Right now, the staff consists of one library director and library hours have been cut back to three days a week (the minimum required by law).

Programs will be brought back and more books will be purchased, too, McFaddin said. There’s also a possibility the board will apply for a matching construction grant to add on more storage space.

Nine board of trustees members were voted in during the election, including returning members Denise diVincenzo, MaryLou Cutler, Sue Perry, and Phyllis McFaddin, and new members Julia Colbert, Art Palmer, Leonard Halpern, Michelle Rowley and Joanne Wellings.