The current Edgartown Library building was last expanded in 1975, when our population numbered about 1,500 people. Today our year-round population is a bit more than 4,000, straining the quality of library services for all its users — most of all, the children for whom a good public library can open whole worlds of new opportunities. In January, Edgartown submitted a grant application to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners for a new, 15,585-square-foot library that would replace the old Union School next to our new elementary school. This plan is the result of a year of intensive work by a building design committee commissioned by the Edgartown selectmen, with representatives from the selectmen, library board of trustees, financial advisory committee and the community at large.

This new, proposed library will create space for children and families, a dedicated room for public programs, up-to-date information technology and adequate parking for public access. For the first time in more than three decades, Edgartown’s new library will have space for the people who use it — children and adults — as well as for collections. The new building includes a beautiful children’s department as well as spaces for quiet study. The program room will accommodate audiences of 80 or more people and the children of our community will never again have to give up their space for the sake of a public program. Computer stations are planned to provide access for 35 adults and 17 children, far more than the present library. Our citizens have identified lack of adequate parking as a key limitation of our present library. The new library site includes more than 50 dedicated parking spaces — and dozens more available in the summer months on the Edgartown School campus next door.

At the annual town meeting on April 12, voters will be asked to authorize the town of Edgartown to accept state grant funds for this project. What does this mean? Article 50 is not asking voters to authorize any new town spending — it fulfills one aspect of Edgartown’s application to the state for grant money, which will be announced this June. If the grant of $5.6 million is forthcoming, voters will be asked at a later special town meeting to authorize a bond issue to cover the town’s share of the building project. We will have another opportunity to discuss all the details and ramifications of the library project, at length. However, this will be the last opportunity that our town has to secure substantial library funding assistance for the foreseeable future.

Community and school leaders have expressed strong support for this project. I think this support is best expressed by Laurence Mercier, a member of the library building design committee, when he said: “I know how important a public library can be in the life of a young person. This is the library that the people of Edgartown deserve, and we should build it.”

Michael Donaroma is an Edgartown selectman and chairman of the library building design committee.