Dan's Papers - August 24, 2007 - Late Library Books? No Problem

Floyd Memorial Library May Have Found The Answer To All Kinds Of Fines, Including Parking Tickets

I've got some fine news for you today. Especially if you live in Greenport and you're a slow reader. (Take no offense, Greenporters. Lots of things are slow on the North Fork. That's part of its charm.) Greenport bookworms - rejoice!

Floyd Memorial Library, that venerable institution on South Street in Greenport, is no longer collecting fines for overdue books or other items. You read me right. Lisa Richland, library director, announced the policy change and I can just hear sighs of relief from Greenport patrons who never returned the library's copies of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1960) or the much more recent "The Killer Angels" (1974). At a dime a day, the fines for those two super books, if returned within the next few weeks, would amount to well over $2,000. Not exactly pocket change.

Maybe Lisa and the Greenport library board have the right idea. They want checked- out items returned much more than they want the $7,500 the fines bring in annually.

I spoke with Poppy Johnson, Floyd Memorial's assistant director, who is hopeful about the new no-fine arrangement. She said there's a jar on the circulation desk meant for overdue book borrowers just in case they'd like to make a thank-you-for-understanding offering. Poppy said it's too early to evaluate the plan's success although some Greenporters have called the library voicing their approval. And yes, although the plan is going strong in other parts of the country, Poppy said she believes Floyd Memorial is the first Long Island library to start it up. Well, good luck, Floyd Memorial. It's not the first time Greenport's come up creative.

Now I wonder about other North Fork fines. There's no question it's a law-abiding group of folks from Riverhead to Orient. But occasionally one of us slips up and a fine is imposed. For example, there are fines for motor vehicle infractions, for letting stuff pile up on your property, for trespassing.

And when it snows there are fines for not shoveling. There are all kinds of fines for building code violations and illegal dumping. If you're out on the water, the fines still apply. You can't discharge anything into the Peconic, the Long Island Sound, or our bays and creeks. I heard something about fines for cutting down a tree without permission even if it's on your property. I'm not sure about that, though. Maybe it's just for a tree that has a bird's nest in it or one that has a swing attached to a lower limb. That's pure North Fork.

Guess you know where I'm going here. Inspired by Lisa Richland of Floyd Memorial, I'm proposing the elimination of all fines on the North Fork. Or at least a one-year moratorium until we see how it works out. I hesitate to ask other North Forkers about their fine history. That's pretty personal. But I suspect their offenses are tame, much like mine. So disposing of fines would do no harm and we'd have happier, richer residents.

Now I occasionally litter my yard. It's like this. I go out to clip some bushes and see some weeds that need digging. I put down the shears and go to the garage for a trowel. On my way back to the weeds I spy tomato plants needing water. Down goes the trowel as I search for the sprinkler. And so it goes. By the end of this particular gardening session, I've misplaced shears, trowel and other assorted tools that won't be found for days - and certainly not until they've been rained on. Point is, I've got stuff piled in my yard that doesn't belong there. I could be fined.

I offend in other areas, too. I think I do some illegal dumping and endanger vehicular traffic at the same time.

I'll set the scene. It's January and a snowstorm just ended. Out I go with the shovel to start in on the 10-12 inches. Finally I get to the bottom of my driveway and come face to face with a chunky, icy barricade almost two-feet high. The good guys who plow our roads (and I'm grateful, believe me) have done it again. Pushed the white stuff right across my driveway. It's like I have to chop my way through a mountain.

And I do so. Shovelful by shovelful I toss the mountain into the road, trying to distribute it evenly so it doesn't look suspicious. But I was almost done in last winter. A plow guy came through a second time, saw what I was doing, and shook a scolding finger at me. If he'd reported me to the police I probably would have been fined. I'll have to be more careful.

I don't think we need any more illustrations of North Fork fines. What we do need is librarian Lisa to go to Riverhead and Southold town halls and plead our case for no fines. She's smart and she's tactful. Good. Otherwise they might throw the book at her.