I would like to respond to the commentary by Mary Ellen Kazimer in The Times Record on April 9, her response to an earlier article about funding Bath’s Patten Free Library on March 24.

PFL uses two years of “current library card usage” to justify only one year of funding. Should not two years of funding be used for a “fair” comparison for two years of usage? I’m sure there is a logical explanation but I don’t know what it might be.

Why does PFL use this method of two years’ data to justify only one year of generous funding from the Town of Woolwich? Or from any of the other towns for that matter? You are comparing “apples” to “oranges” in order to make your point more palatable.

Why not use two years of current library card data to compare two years of funding? After all, you can’t support two years of library card usage with only one year funded and the other not.

If this were the case: 1,101 card uses over two years would be supported not by $50,688 of local funding but, rather, $101,376, or two years of funding rather than just one. “Apples” to “apples”!

It’s a pretty good deal for the Town of Woolwich to reimburse the cost of 1,101 library cards over two years for those who want them. A savings of $46,326, or more than $23,000 per year. Not bad! Has PFL picked and chosen its data in order to “soften” the cost of services provided?

Public funding for the Bath PFL is not by contribution. It is not voluntary. It is a tax. It is a cost levied on all taxpayers. It is mandatory. The amount of the tax is set according to the amount per capita that Bath decides to pay in any given year.

PFL budget has tripled in 20 years. It has increased an average of 6 percent per year each year. None of the communities, not even the school, has managed to accomplish such aggressive growth.

Ms. Kazimer prefers that the Town of Woolwich keep PFL funding buried in the “laundry list” of other items in hopes that nobody will notice it. It is tough to miss the 400- pound gorilla in the room. It’s indeed time for all communities to hold a candid discussion about PFL’s unsustainable cost burden.

Peter Oceretko West Bath