By DENNIS COLLINS
Any citizen who is concerned with literacy and community outreach efforts should pay close attention to what is going on in the Cassadaga-Stockton area.
The town of Stockton was forced to close its Cassadaga library branch in the fall of 2010 due to the discovery of mold growth in the roof area.
Since then, the Cassadaga Library Board and a group of concerned citizens have been striving diligently to raise money to pay for the work that would enable the building to be reopened. They have held fundraisers and put together grant applications and have now reached the point where the funds are available to make this dream a reality.
They asked for no bailout, no handout, no tax increase. They rolled up their sleeves and through their own ingenuity and hard work, got the job done.
The final step was to submit a bid to purchase the building and land from the town of Stockton in a sealed bid sale. When the bids were made public, it appeared that a private citizen's bid topped the library board by a scant $29. To my knowledge, the town of Stockton is under no obligation to accept the highest bid.
If this is true, why wouldn't the town accept the bid of an organization fighting tooth and nail to keep a community building open where children, seniors and in fact all of its citizens can benefit.
Let us hope that the town of Stockton will do its part so that the doors of the Cassadaga Library will be reopened and the lives of that community once again be enriched with the power of the printed word.
Please attend a public meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the town of Stockton offices to lend support to this worthwhile cause.
Dennis Collins is a Cassadaga resident.
