The Lynnfield Library has joined nine other public libraries in what they call “an urgent appeal” to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) for additional funding for library construction projects.
In a letter to MBLC dated Feb. 13, the group asked the MBLC to create a $26 million reserve fund to provide additional one-time grants to the 10 communities that were offered or waitlisted spots in the 2016-2017 Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program.
The communities include Amherst, Brewster, Deerfield, Fitchburg, Gloucester, Lynnfield, Orange, Sharon, Swansea and Westford .
The grants will address escalating construction costs of building new libraries the group said have been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We write today as 10 unified communities and libraries with an urgent appeal.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has wreaked havoc on the entire world for more than two years, has had the same effect in Massachusetts, and skyrocketing construction costs now threaten the success of our distinct library construction projects,” the letter stated. “In the face of current construction costs, the value of MBLC grants determined before COVID has been eroded. In one community, for example, a grant intended to cover 54 percent of eligible costs now represents less than 34 percent of costs.”
The one-time grants shall be in addition to, and not diminish or otherwise affect original grants made by the MBLC.
The $26 million reserve fund represents 10 percent of the current projected cost to complete10 library projects.
In the past four decades, the MBLC has provided transformative grants to more than 330 libraries and municipalities.
“We, the undersigned trustees and library directors, celebrate these accomplishments,” the letter stated. “MBLC grants have enabled recipients across the Commonwealth to enlarge, renovate, replace, and redesign the Victorian benefactor libraries of the nineteenth century and ushered in 21st Century facilities that are responsive, service-oriented, and cutting-edge.”
The letter said that in four communities — Brewster, Orange, Seekonk, and Westborough — voters rejected library projects over concerns about skyrocketing costs. Seekonk and Westborough have now formally withdrawn from the grant program. In six others – Deerfield, Fitchburg, Gloucester, Sharon, Swansea, and Westford — voters approved moving forward, but these communities now face millions of dollars of additional debt, preventing them from pursuing other crucial capital projects. Amherst and Lynnfield are in limbo and need the promise of additional funding before being able to move forward.
If Amherst, Brewster, Lynnfield and Orange withdraw, a full 50 percent of the MBLC-supported library projects will not happen in these 12 communities.
While impacts varied in each community, COVID’s effects added some $88 million to the combined cost of completing the 12 library projects, increasing the projected cost for all 12 library projects to $320,475,000.
The letter stated the communities will be “available to the MBLC and the Legislature as you craft a solution. We emphasize that investing in a single library facility does not equal a single community’s benefit; rather, all libraries across the Commonwealth engage in mutual assistance, sharing collections, patrons and buildings. Every new library is a benefit to the citizenry of the entire Commonwealth. We ask you to invest in the future of this citizenry, and in the greater commonwealth. “
