The second annual Friends of the Edgartown Library 5K run will take place on Monday, Sept. 1. The event is open to walkers or runners.

Crews are working to remove water encountered at the site more than one month ago during the excavation of an elevator pit. Previous explorations into the ground had not shown the true height of the water table.

Construction of the long-planned new Edgartown Public Library is underway. This week, the library foundation handed over $110,000 to the trustees to use for the project.

On Monday, members of the library building committee, library trustees, town selectmen, the Edgartown school principal, the building architect and project manager were on hand to commemorate the Edgartown library groundbreaking.

With spring comes extra hours of daylight — and more library time. Starting March 1, the Edgartown Public Library will be open for 11 extra hours of service.

Reading specialist Kathleen Farrell will lead a free seven-session workshop for kindergarten students at the Edgartown library from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturdays beginning March 8.

A Rhode Island company was the low bidder on a a $7.3 million contract for a new library. And questions surfaced again about the Edgartown Library Foundation.

Timothy Culbert, an architect and founding partner of Imrey Culbert LP, wrote in a letter to town officials that he did not transfer rights for the library design, a step he claims was required for the town to use the design. He said Imrey Culbert was originally retained for design services for the library.

The Edgartown Library summer reading program this year involved more than 100 children and for the first time reached out to children at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club. The statewide theme was Dig Into Reading.
Leading this summer’s readers at the library was Jason Alpert-Wisnia, who read and reported on 58 books. Brandon Engerman read 33 books and Elizabeth Madsen read 24. Reading more than 15 books each were Whitney Johnson, Sasha Kagan, Ellie Kogan, Brant Maynard, Natasha Muromcew, Mary Muromcew, Simon Rhett and Celia Schaper.

Edgartown School students joined town and library officials Monday to celebrate the first visible marker of Edgartown’s new library: a sign announcing the beginning of the project.
A group of students from kindergarten, first grade and third grade at the school posed for a picture in front of a sign that says: “Watch your new library being built here.” The sign is in front of the old brick Edgartown School, which will be demolished this summer to make way for the new library.