POTSDAM — Potsdam Public Library officials will be asking library district voters to approve a 2.99% increase in the tax levy, amounting to $16,664, in polling from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 19.

The increase would add three cents per thousand dollars of taxable property value.

Voting on the budget proposal and three incumbent trustees will be in the Potsdam Village Civic Center, 2 Park St., below the library. Residents of the Potsdam school district for at least 30 days, who are at least 18 years old, and are American citizens, are eligible to vote.

"We have put a lot of energy into fundraising and writing grants over the past two years," said Library Director Annie Chase in a statement on the library’s web site, potsdampubliclibrary.org. "We received grants to improve our signage, to create a North Country Collection and restore some of our rare old books. And the largest grant is for a major renovation.”

On the increase in the budget, Chase said, “The proposed levy only covers our baseline cost increases: utilities, payroll taxes, retirement, insurance, and the increased minimum wage, to cite just a few examples."

The whole budget amounts to $622,294.

Three library board trustees whose terms are expiring, all longtime Potsdam residents, are running to continue serving. They are Richard VanLeuven, current chair of the board’s Finance Committee; David Trithart, a retired member of the library staff at SUNY Potsdam; and Sandra McCloy, a physician who believes public libraries are bedrock community institutions and who, since she retired, has taken more advantage of the library’s offerings and in turn offered her time as a trustee.