Diane Valden is reporting in The Columbia Paper the Ancram Town Board voted last week not to decrease the town's annual support of the Roeliff Jansen Community Library, as previously planned. The board made the decision last month to reduce the town’s contribution from $7,500 this year, to $5,000 next year. The library is chartered to serve the towns of Hillsdale, Copake and Ancram. While voters in Ancram have twice rejected a library funding referendum, Copake now pays $55,000 annually and Hillsdale contributes $42,500 a year to support the library. A contingent of library supporters appeared at the November 17 town board meeting and voiced their displeasure over the board’s decision to reduce the town’s library contribution next year. More than one of the speakers expressed embarrassment and shame over the town's repeated failure to support its library. One resident asked the board to reconsider keeping the annual library contribution at $7,500. She said the $2,500 difference would amount to $1.61 per person. Another resident said, “The town spends many thousands of dollars on trucks, how can we not spend a couple of thousand on the library?” Town board member Christopher Thomas, who opposed, and eventually voted against, the $7,500 library contribution, said he received complaints from residents last year when library support was raised to that amount. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.