MEDFORD — A new library is coming and Mayor Stephanie M. Burke has joined with some community groups to establish a foundation to raise money to foot the bill.
On Monday, the mayor established a foundation charged with initiating and overseeing a capital campaign for the new library, in collaboration with the Medford Public Library Board of Trustees and the Friends of the Medford Public Library.
“I am thrilled to announce that with the partnership of the Trustees, the Friends of the Library and this newly established Advisory Board and Foundation, the city strives to raise the necessary funding to move our community forward with a beautiful multi-use learning space,” Burke said in a statement.
The mayor named the new board members of the library foundation, which includes Barry Sloane, president of Century Bank; Gilda Nogueira, president of East Cambridge Savings Bank; Rocco DiRico, director of government and community relations at Tufts University and businessman Domenic Camarra.
The library has hired Financial Development Agency to lead a feasibility study for the capital campaign which entails interviewing potential donors and a cross-section of community members. A report is expected by the end of the year.
Medford City Council President Richard Caraviello, an early proponent of a new library, is part of an advisory board which promises to be a resource for the foundation.
“Modern libraries play an important part in a community from children’s programming, senior programs, community space and much more,” Caraviello said in a statement. “Gone are the days of just borrowing books. Our new state of the art library will encompass the needs of growing families who are moving to Medford.”
Caraviello is joined on the advisory board by foundation board members Sloane; Nogueira; DiRico and Camarra, as well as Barbara Kerr, Library Director; Sam Sednek, Head of Children’s Services; Ellen Tonello, Chair of the library’s Board of Trustees; trustees Barbara O’Leary, Elisabeth Schaefer, Carol Rickenbacker and Ann Frenning Kossuth; and former trustee Carl DiMaiti.
