The Lynnfield Public Library will seek an extension to use its $9 million provisional grant provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to build a new library after the Select Board voted on it earlier this month.
The request for an extension comes after residents voted against the grant at Town Meeting in October.
The article addressed allocating funds for designing, constructing, furnishing, and equipping a new library. The article also included provisions for various project-related expenses, including demolition, hazardous materials remediation, and the creation of parking facilities.
The article required a two-thirds majority to pass. While 293 residents, a simple majority, voted to accept the grant, 230 rejected it, and the article failed to pass the two-thirds threshold.
While the Select Board agreed to request an extension from the MBLC during its meeting earlier this month, members of the board reiterated their stance about constructing a new library. Select Board member Dick Dalton said that he will “make a motion to approve the extension going forward,” but he still “remains in objection to it.”
“The new library’s initial construction cost was $18 million, with an MBLC grant of $8 million covering 44% of the expenses,” Dalton said at Town Meeting. “However, the construction cost has now grown to $31 million, a 72% increase.”
Select Board Chair Joe Connell said that a Special Town Meeting will be called for residents to vote on the project again if the Library Building Committee can collect 200 signatures in its favor. Connell, too, has been apprehensive about the project.
“In the past, the grants were much larger,” Connell told The Item in August. “Now they’re down somewhere in the $7 million range. But to build a new library, we’re going to need funds somewhere in the range of $34 to 35 million. And that may be an underestimate.”
According to the Select Board, taxpayers were originally supposed to contribute $10 million to the project. Now, due to the increased cost of construction, the amount they would have to pay is $25 million.
