Edgartown selectmen expanded the duties of the library building committee this week to include the issue of the dilapidated Capt. Warren House and future use of the Carnegie Library.
Selectman and building committee chairman Michael Donaroma suggested at Monday’s meeting that now that the state library grant decision was done, the committee should turn its attention to the more urgent matter of determining what should become of the North Water street buildings.
A private consultant hired by the Edgartown Library Foundation is threatening legal action for copyright infringement over a phrase used to promote an annual community fund-raiser for the town public library.
Danielle Pendergraft claims her public relations company, Holiday Public Relations, owns the rights to the slogan, “Frankly, We Love Our Library.”
The annual event is held on Labor Day at the Katama Airport, where the community is invited to come and eat frankfurters and raise money for the town library.
As political fault lines continue to undermine the struggling Edgartown library rebuilding project, the town selectmen have called a special meeting for Monday afternoon to address the problems.
The meeting will be held at 3:30 p.m. prior to the weekly selectmen’s meeting.
“This committee has been making bad decisions for six years,” declared Edgartown selectman Michael Donaroma, also a member of the library building committee, following a tense meeting with elected library trustees on Tuesday night.
Edgartown library trustees agreed to back a new library design this week, but tacked on a set of complicated conditions that could still jeopardize the state grant application.
A lean budget, new library and a series of zoning bylaw changes top a hefty 68-article warrant that awaits Edgartown voters at the annual town meeting Tuesday night.
Longtime moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. will preside over the session; the meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Old Whaling Church.
Voters will be asked to approve a $27.5 million budget, up 3.4 per cent over last year, largely due to increased education assessments, a large police and fire department budget and funding for a town dredging project in Sengekontacket Pond.
In 1904, Edgartown received a gift from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie: $4,000 for a town library, one of more than 1,600 libraries the steel magnate bankrolled nationwide. The brick building on North Water street — the property was deeded to the town by resident Caroline F. Warren — was the smallest Carnegie library built in Massachusetts, and as part of the agreement with Mr. Carnegie, Edgartown agreed to spend one-tenth of the gift price on library operations. In 1904, Edgartown’s library spending jumped from $129 to $400 a year.
Edgartown selectmen Tuesday praised a proposal to have the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust take stewardship of the Edgartown library building, possibly transforming the building into a cultural and educational center, if it is replaced by a new library.
