Voters approved the 2011 Rogers Memorial Library budget by a comfortable margin on Friday, and two new trustees were elected to the library’s board.
Residents voted 153-49 in favor of the $4 million budget, which represents a 1.5-percent increase over last year’s $3.69 million spending plan, according to Library Director Liz Burns. Despite the increase in spending, the tax rate will drop 3.3 percent due to higher estimated assessed valuation in Tuckahoe and Southampton this year.
Also on Friday, incumbent board member Judith Ann Costa, 81, was reelected, while newcomers Peter Cheney, 67, a former trustee and treasurer, and Lawrence Strickland, 63, a retired Southampton High School Spanish teacher, won seats on the board. The newly elected trustees’ terms will start in January 2011 and continue until December 31, 2014.