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All three local library budgets pass by wide margins

BARBARAELLEN KOCH FILE PHOTO | Riverhead Free Library.

All three area library budgets were approved by comfortable margins Tuesday night.

Riverhead Free Library’s $3.3 million budget represented a 1.98 percent tax levy increase and it was approved by a vote of 179-64.

“We appreciate the support of our voters, and look forward to continuing to work with our community in the coming year,” Riverhead library director Lisa Jacobs said afterward.

Those same voters also approved a $100 increase in the Baiting Hollow Free Library, bringing it to $11,700. That vote was 165-76, and 66 absentee ballots were not counted as they did not affect the outcome.

The North Shore Public Library, which covers the Shoreham-Wading River and Rocky Point school districts, also saw its $3.39 million budget approved, by a 263 to 33 vote. It increased the tax levy by two percent, just making the state’s two-percent tax cap.

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