To the Editor:

As we approach the May 21 vote on the library’s renewal efforts, I wanted to take a moment to issue special thanks to two community members who went out of their way to help design our renovation and expansion project.

Albany County Legislator Mark Grimm, and local commercial real estate agent Julie Tidd of C.M. Fox gave generously of their time, attending almost a dozen meetings as at-large community members of our Design Steering Committee, which was also made up of library board, staff, and foundation members.

This committee heard the feedback of 2,108 community members who contributed thoughts to the design of our project through public meetings, online surveys, and focus-group discussions. The committee’s role was to synthesize those thousands of responses, under the guidance of architect Paul Mays, into the plan that we ask you to vote upon on May 21.

As always, the election will be held at the five elementary schools in Guilderland, from 7 a.m to 9 p.m.; if you are unsure of where to vote, please see the Guilderland Public Library website at www.guilderlandlibrary.org, and click on “Library Renewal Vote.”

As a well-known advocate for responsible public spending, we found Mr. Grimm’s perspective to be particularly helpful, and in fact invited him to join our team to ensure that taxpayers would be presented with a project that responsibly covered the needs our community expressed. This kind of public citizenship is to be commended.

Christopher R. Aldrich

GPL Trustee

Design Steering

Committee Chairman