Officials hope to convince the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to let them use a $6.3 million grant awarded to build a new library to instead renovate and expand the existing building housing the West Springfield Public Library.
WEST SPRINGFIELD – The Town Council is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to authorize a $7.1 million bond for a major library building project.
It is scheduled to take that action during its regularly scheduled meeting set for 7 p.m. in the municipal building.
The request originated under the administration of former Mayor Edward J. Gibson last year when plans called for building a $13.4 million library on the site of Mittineague School
However, those plans changed about the time Mayor Gregory C. Neffinger took office in January and it was learned that the school site would not be available. Proponents of building a new library had hoped the city would get a grant from the state to put an addition onto Tatham School to create space for students who would otherwise have attended Mittineague. No grant for that purpose has been forthcoming from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
The Town Council’s ad hoc committee studying the situation is expected to recommend to the council Monday that it move ahead to bond to renovate and expand the existing library at 200 Park St.
Library officials are hopeful that they can reduce the amount of money ultimately needed to bond for a project by $2 million that a steering committee being formed by the Board of Library Trustees plans to raise through a local fund drive.
Local officials want to use a $6.3 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners awarded last year to build a new library at Mittineague School for a project at the current library building. They plan to make their case to the state board when it meets June 7.
“I think a consensus has been built with all the individuals who have sat at the table that this is the course to take,” Town Councilor Brian J. Griffin, chairman of the Town Council’s New Library Ad Hoc Committee, said Friday of using the state grant for a project at the library.