It Is Official ! First Library Millage In City History Passes 548 "Yes " to 509 "No."

By a margin of 39 of the 1057 votes cast today voted no) City residents approved a three year agreement with the Birmingham Baldwin Library. It is expected that City residents will be able to use the library as soon as mid-month.

For millage proponents the war was won in the North Precinct 1 (City Hall Fire Station). There the margin of victory 36 votes. (161 No to 125  Yes.) approached that of the final 39 vote outcome. Absentee votes from  Precinct 1 residents were 190 Yes and 180 No. In the North voter turnout was in the  30 to 40%. range.

For millage opponents the war was lost in the South Precinct 2 (Congressional Church by Cranbrook). There "Yes" triumphed over "No" 99 to 86. In absentee ballots the "No" votes bested "Yes" by a twenty vote margin 118 to 98. In the voter turn out South  fell in the 20 to 30 % percent range.

Citywide Absentee" No" votes  topped "Yes votes by a ten vote margin 

Absentee votes also topped in person voting "by a 587 to 472 vote.

To Some the Millage election was a quest for a more convenient library. Curiously most of the"Yes" votes came from residents who lived the farthest from the Baldwin Library. If the millage was held in the Northern portion only the Yes vote would have triumphed 351 to 305. If the millage was only conducted in the South the No vote would have triumphed 204 to 197.

1. Factors that in retrospect seem more significant  were  a library that made it quite what the benefits to residents would be.
2.  Full participation at a  the lowest price offered to the city in thirteen years. Remember in 2003 the rate the Township Library was offered was in excess of $400,000 annual dollars.

Congratulations are of course in order to the Baldwin Library and their board who worked with us to make this partnership a reality. There will more on that in future posts. For it now this writer will tell you that if the millage failed  we were  was going to suggest (seriously) that concerned citizens individually buy the Baldwin Library Director Doug Koschik and the library board a nice gifts for all their troubles. A fruit basket from Westborn Market would work. They have rather nice ones for around a hundred and half. Now that is not necessary You can keep the money and you don't have to waste time delivering it in the rain.. Best of all, in narrow confines of the Baldwin executive offices, people are not tripping over dozens of baskets that arrived out the blue.

Congratulations to Larry Neal who organized a very good grass roots and Internet campaign that the delivered a good portion of the Northern "Yes" vote.

Congratulations to Robert Toohey whose  thoughtful letters, paid for at his own expense, gave people things to consider. In a free society we need a diversity of opinion. Mr. Toohey was the first resident to discuss the emerging world of electronic books. More on that in later posts.

We would also like to congratulate this fledgling blog which makes the unabashed claim to be all things "City of Bloomfield Hills". On Tuesday Night with no precincts reporting we called the election at
9:03 pm. We said exactly,

9:03 PM

City of Bloomfield Hills Blog projects Library Millage will pass with 54%
(571 Yes to 487 No ) vote margin

A little high but still the the first projection of the evening. The complete text can be found on our election day blog ,one blog back. For the author such a prognostication is major vindication of a college education spent in campus politics.