On Dec. 10, between 6 and 9 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Cherry Lane Elementary School, residents of the Carle Place School District who live in Carle Place and Westbury will vote on whether to create a library funding district, approve its first ever budget and elect five trustees to its board. I am running as a candidate for one of the trustee positions. I look forward to being able to continue the work necessary to creating our new district and finalizing a contract with the Westbury Public Library.

It's been a long road to get to where we are today. I began working on this issue almost nine years ago when my family first moved into the area and found we didn't qualify for a Westbury Library card and that Carle Place didn't have a public library. Library cards could be purchased from Westbury or other area libraries. A little more than two years ago, libraries were forbidden by the state from selling memberships to outside residents. Thus, even those willing to pay other libraries for services were shut out. Our community was ready to revisit this issue.

Over time, I met other like-minded community members who were also working on the library issue. Two years ago, over 25 community members and the Carle Place Civic Association came together to form the Carle Place Public Library Funding Committee. I have had the privilege to serve as chairman of this committee since its inception.

We collected petitions with over 1,200 signatures to show community interest in the issue. We worked with our local assembly person and state senator to craft and pass the legislation necessary to allow us to vote for public library services. Once the governor signed the legislation into law on Nov. 13, 2001, we worked with the Town of North Hempstead and Nassau County to make this vote a reality. Support for this measure has been overwhelming community-wide including students, seniors, parents and homeowners.

I would like to thank all of my fellow committee members and our attorney, Frank Moroney, for the time, hard work, perseverance and diligence that have gone into accomplishing our goals. This has truly been a community effort and I am proud to be a part of it.

On Tuesday, Dec. 10, I ask everyone to vote "yes" on the creation of the library district, to vote "yes" to approve the library budget and "yes" to vote for me as one of your library trustees.