A state Supreme Court judge has ordered a nonprofit to postpone the eviction of the Purchase Free Library in Harrison as a legal battle continues over the library”™s future.
The Purchase library is the smallest in Westchester County, employing one person full time and occupying an estimated 700 square feet at the Purchase Community House, which also hosts preschool and after-school programs and a day camp.
Purchase Community Inc., the nonprofit that operates the community house, decided not to renew the library”™s lease due to what it called safety concerns. An eviction notice was issued in September, but library officials and community members sued the nonprofit, saying it had no right to evict and that the community house and library were inseparable.
Judge Linda Jamieson ruled Oct. 28 to stay the eviction and told both parties they needed to come to terms about a special meeting of the nonprofit”™s members to be held by Dec. 15. Martha Greenberg, president of the library”™s board of trustees, said in a statement that the library and its supporters were grateful for the postponement.
“It is unfortunate that the Purchase Community Inc. board has tried to evict the library when there is no broad consensus in the community for such radical action that will alter our community forever,” she said.
PCI”™s board said the library should be treated no differently than any tenant in a privately owned building. The group said its reason for not renewing the lease was the safety of children, after two incidents involving suspicious men on the property who said they were visiting the library. Justine Gaeta, president of PCI”™s board, said the decision not to renew came after months of discussion.
“Now a small group of library supporters wants to overturn that decision and change PCI”™s corporate purpose to make the library a permanent tenant,” she said. “Such steps have no legal basis and would harm the interests of everyone in the Purchase community.”
Since the library is a public space, officials have said, any individual has the right to access the property despite potential risks to children. But according to papers from the library”™s attorney, Steven Schoenfeld of the White Plains-based firm DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr LLP, no one has an absolute right to loiter in the parking lot or front of the building.
In court documents, the library”™s security consultant, Larry Eidelman, a Yorktown police officer with experience working with children and schools, is quoted as saying the library “presents no significant safety or security risk to patrons, staff or the surrounding community.”
The library has signed annual leases for the space in the community house, starting at $100 per month in the 1920s with significant increases up to its present $1,800 per month. The library contends its function is tied to the legacy of the building even if that was never expressly stated within its lease.
The property was donated by the family of William A. Read, which stipulated the property must always be used as a community house. Although there is no mention of a library in any agreement with the family, Read”™s wife and other members of the family were involved with the library. Donald Read, William A. Read”™s grandson who now lives in Connecticut, said in a court statement that the eviction of the library would not represent the wishes and legacy of his grandparents. The library was operated by a subcommittee of the PCI board until the 1960s, when management was separated. The library has contended its arrangement with PCI is not a typical landlord-tenant relationship and that the PCI board does not have the right to evict the library, which said it has nowhere to relocate.
Supporters gathered 900 signatures in a petition to keep the library open and have since called into question the PCI board”™s decision not to renew. Many library supporters are PCI members who now wish to hold a recall election of the nonprofit’s board of directors and reverse the decision at a special meeting ”“ in court documents, the library”™s attorney said the board’s re-election was held unscientifically with an informal show of hands of those in attendance. That is the meeting for which the agenda is to be determined by request of the judge by Dec. 15.
The Purchase library operates independently of the Harrison Public Library, which has branches in the other two geographic areas of the town: Harrison and West Harrison.
Read the library’s response here.
Read Donald Read affidavit here.
Read Martha Greenberg affidavit here.
