(Oneida, NY – Feb. 15, 2016) On Tuesday March 1 registered voters in the Oneida Public Library Special Legislature Library District will get a chance to vote for a candidate for the one open seat on the OPL Board of Trustees and to vote on the board’s proposed operating budget for the library’s upcoming fiscal year, July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017.
Incumbent Heather Fallon de la Riva is running unopposed for the open seat on the board. If elected, she will serve a full five-year term without pay on the OPL Board starting July 1, 2015.
The board is proposing an operating budget of $388,458 to run the library at 220 Broad St. for FY 2016-17. It represents a 1.6 percent increase in revenues and expenses compared with the operating budgets of both FY 2014-15 and FY 2015-16. (The current FY 2015-16 operating budget, including the tax levy, had no increase over the FY 2014-15 budget).
Breaking down revenue sources, the proposed new budget has a Library District tax levy of $340,458; other public funding of $15,000; private funding of $21,000; and library revenue of $12,000 generated by fines and ancillary fees.
The proposed tax levy shows an increase of $6,348 (a 1.9 percent increase) over that of both previous fiscal years’ budgets. The increase complies with the New York State Tax Cap Law of June 2011 (Chapter 97, N.Y.S. Laws of 2011).
The candidate for the open board seat, Heather de la Riva, was born and raised in Oneida and graduated third in her class from Oneida High School. She attended Villanova University and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science.
After graduation, de la Riva worked in Washington, D.C., as an aide to two congressmen, and then as an employee for a defense contractor. Eventually she found a career in human resources and is currently a senior human resources business partner and leads the HR Cooperative at Nonprofit HR, a firm based in Washington.
De la Riva is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Senior Certified Professional and as a Strategic Human Resources Business Partner.
With her husband Nicolas, de la Riva relocated back to Oneida in 2013 to start a family. Today they have one 11-month old daughter and are expecting a second child in July. After the move, de la Riva decided to be “part of the active effort to revitalize Oneida and make it a small town that was sought after by young professionals and businesses alike,” she said.
To that end, de la Riva joined the OPL Board in October 2014 to fill out the term of retiring board member Diane Roy.
“The Oneida Public Library provides a wide array of necessary services to many different demographics within our city and surrounding areas,” she said. “The new library will be a catalyst to assist with the area’s revitalization.”
The OPL Board invites interested members of the public to attend its open hearing on Tuesday Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. in the library’s Meeting Room to meet the board candidate and to learn more about the proposed operating budget for FY 2016-17.
This year’s library vote is officially scheduled for Tuesday March 1, from noon to 9 p.m. in the library’s Meeting Room. To vote, library district residents living in Madison County must be currently registered with the Madison County Board of Elections while those residing in Oneida County must be registered with the Oneida County Board of Elections.
Absentee ballot applications are available for registered voters residing in the OPL Special Library District who will be away from the district on the day of the Library Vote or are temporarily or permanently ill or disabled. Application forms and instructions for casting an absentee ballot are available by request from the OPL Director Carolyn Gerakopoulos, 220 Broad St., Oneida, NY 1342. The application form and instructions are also available online on the OPL web site (www.midyorklib.org/oneida) for printing out.
The Oneida Public Library Special District, which is co-extensive with the Oneida City School District, comprises: the City of Oneida, the village of Wampsville and portions of the towns of Lenox and Lincoln in Madison County; and, in Oneida County, the villages of Oneida Castle and Durhamville and portions of Sylvan Beach and the towns of Vernon, Verona and Vienna.