OUR TURN By the Milford Borough Council

Council comments on library talk in the press To the taxpayers of Milford Borough: Be assured, the Milford Borough Council is concerned about the money being spent to review and analyze the current building design proposed by the Pike County Public Library. It is not an easy decision for the council to spend this money as we are also taxpayers of the Borough. (A proponent of the project from an outlying community would lead you to believe that residents of her community share in this cost. They do not. When someone says “our tax dollars”, they should be accurate. She is not, and her attack is unwarranted and unfair.) But sometimes the Borough has to spend dollars to protect the interests of the town that we all call home. As Council members and Architectural Review Board (ARB) members, we have an obligation to see that the ordinances in the borough are applied fairly across the board. This includes private owners, government buildings and corporate America. There cannot be one interpretation of our ordinances for one group and another for the rest of the world. We have never acted this way in the past and we did not want to do so now. However, we anticipated (correctly as it turned out) that some people connected with this project would not respect a decision if it was only made by us locals. At least one member of the group supporting the current design has stated that she has been in the design business for 30 years and this is all about taste. She could not be more wrong. This is not about taste. It is about compliance with specific architectural guidelines. We also knew that there was a large group of people that had seen the proposed design in the papers and did not like it. Whatever decision was made, we needed expert help and we knew it. (It is ironic that some of the same people that are in favor of spending huge sums on an architect question spending a small fraction of that sum on an expert to review his work.) To get the help needed, we hired Architect Peter Benton because he is a renowned expert and respected professional. In hiring Benton, we obtained an unbiased opinion from an expert in the field of historic preservation. This action was undertaken not to stop the project, but rather to ensure compliance with the ARB ordinance and guidelines as a necessary step in the permitting process. The ARB ordinance was enacted to see that the borough kept its historic small town quaint appeal. Not to say we don’t want new buildings, we do, but what we want is the ordinance to be followed. That is the only agenda that the council and the ARB have regarding the library project. Remember, no member of the library board or building committee questioned the ordinance and guidelines until they were applied to this building design. The public officials in the Borough embrace the idea of a new library in Milford; we have always supported the library with local taxes. While it may have been small in relation to the library’s budget, we have always given our fair share and we will continue to support it in the future. What we ask all Milford Borough residents to do is review the Milford Borough ARB Ordinance and Guidelines, then apply them to the new design being proposed by the Pike County Public Library. You will see that this is not an easy decision. These decisions rarely are. That is why in a matter of this importance we engaged an expert and our expert consulted with other experts. Based on his analysis and these consultations, Benton concluded in his report that the current library design does not comply and that the design should be revised. Remember, once this building is approved, our interpretation of the ordinance and guidelines will be used by other developers of future projects and that will shape the future of the Borough. While we on the council know that the ARB ordinance is a subject of debate by many people and some may even find it an attack on private property rights, we on the council see it as a protection for the borough and your property rights from inappropriate design and construction and a reduction in property values. We on the council welcome comments from the residents of the borough, in relation to all issues facing the Borough. We serve this community for the same reason you live here. We hold Milford close to our hearts and want it to be preserved into the future.