In a widening rift between Edgartown leaders and the nonprofit Edgartown Library Foundation, the town library trustees voted Tuesday to ask the foundation to cease and desist fundraising for the library, and to remove the Edgartown library image and information from its website.
“They are no longer, in my opinion, supporting the library or doing any service to the library whatsoever, and because of that I’d like to make sure . . . that any reference to [the Edgartown Library Foundation] is removed from our website,” library trustee Julie Lively said.
Edgartown selectmen and members of the Edgartown Library Foundation sparred Monday over whether the nonprofit organization would turn over money for the town’s new library project, with selectmen criticizing the organization for a lack of transparency and withholding the money, while foundation members said they had concerns about the project’s completion and wanted naming opportunities for the new library.
A new Edgartown Public Library, approved by town voters and hinging on state funding, took a giant leap toward reality Thursday.
Edgartown was awarded a $5 million grant Thursday from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, one of eight towns to receive $41.8 million in construction grants from the state.
The Edgartown library must expand now or else fail the community it
serves.
That's the message the board of trustees of the Edgartown Free
Public Library is hoping to convey to town officials and voters this
week as it starts a critical phase of its push for expansion of the
century-old facility. A crucial vote next week will decide the first
step in what the board hopes will be a successful bid to bring the
library into the 21st century.
Special Town Meeting Set for August 31; Plan is to Buy Captain
Warren House; There Is Desperate Need for Space
By ALEXIS TONTI
Edgartown residents will convene this month for a special town
meeting to decide whether to purchase a property adjacent to the
Edgartown Free Public Library to make room for expansion of the
century-old library.
Trustees of the Edgartown Free Public Library unveiled designs for
the proposed $11.5 million expansion project on North Water street this
week.
The plan, which would connect the Carnegie library and recently
purchased Captain Warren house by way of a 17,000-square-foot addition,
raised eyebrows at the historic district commission public hearing on
Wednesday.
Board of Appeals in Edgartown Turns Down Library Expansion
By IAN FEIN
The Edgartown zoning board of appeals this week
denied a special permit for the Edgartown Free Public Library,
effectively killing the proposed library expansion project for at
least another four years.
Three of the five board members voted in opposition to the
project, which would have connected the Carnegie library and recently
purchased Captain Warren House by means of a 17,000-square-foot
addition.
Edgartown library staffers were stepping over wet cement this week in an effort to ready the old Carnegie building on North Water street for its official reopening next Tuesday.
The sidewalk under repair is one thing that is not their problem — town highway superintendent Stuart Fuller is in charge of that project — but they have had their share of problems following last year’s furnace puffback incident. The building was closed in early December after a burst furnace covered much of the furniture, upholstery and stock in an oily vapor.
The Edgartown library has been provisionally awarded $4.59 million as part of an omnibus bond bill that authorizes a total of $137.5 million for public library construction across the state.
The grant would help pay for an expansion project for the library on North Water street with a price tag of $15 million.
The library began action on the project in 2004 when the town agreed to buy the Capt. Warren house next door to the library on North Water street.
Still well short of their goal to raise $4 million from private contributions to expand and renovate the Edgartown Public Library, town library trustees turned to the selectmen for help this week, asking them to place an article on the annual town meeting warrant for the money.
The trustees need to raise $4 million by next June in order to receive a matching grant from the Massachusetts board of library commissioners. To date trustees have raised just under $750,000.
