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THE BOOK SHNOOKS ON E. END

Apparently reading is only for rich kids in East Hampton.

A Hamptons library director says a local zoning board is blocking the creation of a children’s reading wing — solely because it might attract book-hungry youngsters from lower-class areas.

While the library sits on East Hampton’s posh Main Street, kids from surrounding school districts would be allowed to use the 10,000 new books that would be provided.

“There are people with great political influence who are opposed to any expansion of services to people outside the immediate community,” East Hampton Library Director Dennis Fabiszak said.

Fabiszak said the zoning board is scuttling the popular proposal for a 3,500-square-foot expansion because kids from less affluent areas such as Springs might take to it.

The director said he was floored by a request from board members for a breakdown of li brary cardholders by commu nity. The query, he said, sig naled a concern about the types of children who might use it.

“We refused to provide it because it’s not important,” he said.

Zoning board co-chair Joan Denny said: “To say that we are opposed to kids from certain communities coming to the library is ridiculous. We’re doing our due diligence. We want all the facts, on parking, on traffic, on everything.”

The library’s attorney, Bill Esseks, said the board might have a problem with an influx of kids from less affluent communities.

“They have said some things in the meeting minutes that lend some credence to that,” he said.

Much of the delay in approval for the project — for which $4 million has been privately raised — stems from the board’s insistence on exhaustive environmental reviews. Fabiszak said the demands are a stall tactic.

Esseks said the facility is exempt from the time-consuming and costly process because it’s an educational institution.

Despite a letter from the state Department of Environmental Conservation supporting the exemption, village officials are holding firm.

East Hampton Village attorney Linda Riley disputed the DEC’s opinion about the exemption.

Supporters and opponents of the project will have their say at a public hearing on Sept. 11.

“Is my son going to be in high school before this expansion happens?” said library regular Erica Farber, 47, of Wainscott, the mother of a 6-year-old boy.

selim.algar@nypost.com