Resident Trying to Push the Library Issue Onto the November Ballot

A day after the Town Council could not commit to a public hearing to gather input on a proposed $2.6 million bonding issue to expand the Tolland Library, a resident who attended that meting is taking matters into his own hands. 

And pens.

Steven Jones on Wednesday picked up the necessary paperwork for a petition that could force the issue onto the November ballot with the municipal election. 

Jones is the Democratic Town Committee secretary. 

The council, after a long and often-heated discussion, found itself deadlocked at 3-3 over a motion to schedule a public hearing on the library project for May 28. Council members said the issue can be revisited in two weeks when the full board is there.

Jones could trump that move. 

"I would love to see all the signatures on the petition form and place a copy on each desk and tell council members, 'if you are not willing to push the issue the people will push it for you.'"

In a memo to the Friends of the Tolland Library and Democratic Town Committee members, Jones called Tuesday's deadlock, "a jumbled, but unified front against putting this project up to a public vote by three of the four Republican Town Council members."

The plan is to expand the library into the adjacent gymnasium at the Hicks Municipal Center and a public hearing is required to discuss the funding mechanism. 

Officials said grants will also be pursued to offset the borrowing.

The premise is to give the library more space for books and state-of-the-art offerings.  

Jones called the petition undertaking a "daunting task" because he would need about 462 signatures, a number equal to 5 percent of the registered voters at the time of the last municipal election, to force a ballot question. 

Jones said  he is going to sit outside the library on Saturday to collect signatures. He said he would also be embarking on an "aggressive door-knocking campaign" to collect whatever he needs over the next two weeks.

Town Manager Stephen Werbner said he is consulting town lawyers to review the rules for a ballot question petition.