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Village library promotes thirst for reading

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PHILMONT–Trivia question: How many books would it take to fill the Philmont reservoir?

Not that anyone plans to do such a thing, but library Director Karen Garafalo has challenged the community to accomplish it, metaphorically.

The reservoir holds 108,304,920 gallons, she told the Village Board at its June meeting. Each page of a library book read by a community member adds 100 gallons to the total: “Our goal, therefore, is to read 1 million pages.”

Books read must be from the Philmont library–that steamy romance Aunt Minnie left in the guest room doesn’t count. Ms. Garafalo especially recommends large-print editions: Brandishing a Pat Conroy tome, she said, “They have lots of pages!”

The fill-the-reservoir project aligns with this year’s statewide summer reading theme, “Splash into Reading.”

Also at the June meeting, village trustees continued discussion of the widely-ignored crosswalk markings on Main Street, which require motorists to yield to pedestrians.

Many motorists still aren’t obeying the law, said resident Brian Wheeler, “and sooner or later, somebody’s going to get hit.” He showed a photo of the signs in front of Columbia Memorial Hospital, which order drivers to “STOP for pedestrians in crosswalk.”

Trustee Barbara Sagal described an arrangement she saw in Rhode Island, in which a person using the crosswalk picks up a large orange flag, crosses the street, then returns the flag to a rack on the other side.

After a Richardson Hall resident growled, “We’ve been talking about this for six months now,” the board voted unanimously to buy six bigger and bolder signs for the two Main Street crosswalks.

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