It was good news and bad news for two Island libraries Thursday morning — the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners awarded a grant to the West Tisbury library for building a new facility, but Edgartown did not make the cut and will receive no funding.
Eight out of 27 towns that applied for grant money received awards, announced yesterday morning. West Tisbury placed eighth on the list, while Edgartown was number 11. The town of Athol was number one on the list.
West Tisbury will receive $2.98 million, the full amount requested. Edgartown had applied for $5 million.
Towns that received funding now have six months to commit to a design and raise remaining monies for their projects.
The news is well-timed for the West Tisbury Library building committee, which will host a fund-raiser next Wednesday night featuring author and historian David McCullough as keynote speaker.
This article appears in July 12, 2011.
Please note: The eight successful grantees were not ranked. Instead, the list of names was alphabetical. Athol thus appears to be #1 because its name starts with the letter A, whereas West Tisbury was at the bottom because its name starts with the letter W, which is near the end of the alphabet.