The Manhasset Public Library Board of Trustees voted on Monday night, Nov. 16, to present a referendum to the district's voters that will, if approved, result in the construction of a new library on the site of the Christ Church Parish Hall and parking lot. The vote was unanimous. The board will probably request the voters to approve a $9.8 million bond issue which would increase the average homeowner's tax by $81 a year.

Prior to the meeting, the trustees held two public forums to acquaint residents with the present need for expansion of the library and with four possible options to resolve the overcrowding. The first option would have been to improve the present site; the second would have had the library acquire the adjacent property to add parking spaces and some additional library space; the third is the Christ Church parish house property acquisition with a new library constructed there; the fourth was the creation of a new library district which would have included all of North Hills with a new library to be built in North Hills.

There was a box in the library in which residents were invited to make their choices known. In addition to the two public forums, the library trustees commissioned a nonprofit polling firm to conduct a telephone survey of 400 library district residents chosen at random. According to the library's executive director, Marian Robertson, the library voting box contained three votes for option one, seven votes for option two and 111 votes for option three.

At the Nov. 16 meeting, trustee Seval LaRocca said that at the first public forum, approximately 80 percent of those in attendance preferred Option 3 and at the second forum approximately 70 percent preferred option 3.

Trustee Frank Hone discussed the results of the telephone survey. Thirty-nine percent of those responding chose the Christ Church option; 19 percent wanted to repair and expand the library at its present site; 18 percent wanted to improve the present site and 15 percent opted for a North Hills library.

Board President James Pelzer said that a "broad cross-section chose option 3." He acknowledged that it was not a majority but a substantial plurality in favor of the Christ Church option. In response to a suggestion from local realtor Walter France that the library acquire the present North Hempstead Town Hall for a library, Mrs. Robertson met with Supervisor May Newburger and was told that the site is "not available."

In 1993 the library board of trustees presented the voters with a referendum that would have spent $13,600,000 for a new library at the Christ Church site by 34 votes. At that time the price for the site was $3,500,000. In 1995 voters rejected a proposed bond issue of $9,800,000 by a vote of 1429 to 1381. The proposal this year will probably be basically the same as the 1995 proposal, according to Mrs. Robertson. New York State has to approve any library plans and Mrs. Robertson said that "Albany approved this in the past." The library will still have to request a new approval.

Norman Nemec, an architect whose home is on Onderdonk Avenue, adjacent to the Christ Church site, presented the board with an alternative site plan for the library which the board will consider. They will also call the architect who drew up the 1995 plans to revisit the site. The board will also order a new appraisal of the Christ Church property.

If all goes well the referendum should be offered to the voters in late March or early April.