Metro

Mom’s LI library cru$ade takes ‘cheater’ blow

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She’s started a tome tussle on Long Island.

The mother of Sam Eshaghoff, the SAT whiz kid charged with acing the college exam for six students in exchange for cash, is pushing a massive Great Neck library expansion that many critics say is a money drain.

Library board president Janet Eshaghoff is at the center of the controversy, which has become even hotter now that her son is in the spotlight.

“Janet was already taking heat for the expansion,” said one library board member. “She didn’t need the extra publicity a few weeks before this vote, even if it’s her son and not her. That’s just how it works around here.”

Janet Eshaghoff has advocated for the whopping $21 million renovation, set for a hotly contested bond-referendum vote on Oct. 25.

Fuming residents in the tony town say there’s no practical reason the library needs an additional 8,000 square feet for noncritical projects like a sloped-seating auditorium, gallery space and a cafe.

“This is an ego expansion,” said former library trustee Norman Rutta, who argued that board members are just trying to keep up with other affluent Nassau districts like Manhasset and Port Washington.

Proponents put the tax hike needed for the project at roughly $80 a year for a $1 million home. But that’s on top of the existing $600 Great Neck residents pay in annual library taxes.

Other critics fault library expansion as e-book readership grows.

Library director Jane Marino said Janet Eshaghoff’s domestic issues should not influence voters.

“Janet’s personal problems are her personal problems,” she said.

Marino also said that the high price tag represents an entire overhaul of the existing building.

The outdated 1970 facility, she said, is in dire need of upgrades.

“There is a segment of the community that has been opposed to any improvement to the library for the past 20 years,” she fumed.