11 August, 2014
The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) is pleased to announce that it awarded provisional construction grant awards to the top five communities on the Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP) Wait List at its monthly meeting on August 7, 2014. Those communities are as follows:
Webster~Chester C. Corbin Public Library~$5,366,489
Woburn~Woburn Public Library~$9,906,275
Hopkinton~Hopkinton Public Library~$4,533,580
Somerville~Somerville Public Library~$18,100,101
Stoughton~Stoughton Public Library~$6,702,689
Funding for these projects was made possible through the capital bond bill, signed by Governor Deval Patrick on August 5, 2014. The bond bill authorizes a total of $151,200,000 for the highly successful Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program. “By funding library construction, the Governor and the Legislature have demonstrated their continued commitment to providing lifelong learning for every Massachusetts resident no matter where they live, how old they are, or how much money they make,” said Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) Chair Greg Shesko.
Grant awards are roughly half the total eligible project costs. Libraries that were awarded provisional grants will have until February 28, 2015 to secure the local funding match necessary to receive their MPLCP grant. The remaining libraries on the MPLCP Wait List are Hatfield, Sherborn and Leicester. Grant awards to these libraries will occur as funding becomes available through the state’s capital plan.
The MPLCP helps libraries across the Commonwealth meet the growing demand for library services with expanded and improved library facilities. Over the past decade, visits to libraries have increased close to 40% as libraries evolve into the only remaining free community space that welcomes all residents. Technology in libraries has also become increasingly important. Every six minutes a Massachusetts resident sits down at a library computer. “Many of our libraries were built over 100 years ago and struggle to accommodate the ways in which people are using the library today,” said MBLC Chair Greg Shesko.
MPLCP funding was last authorized by the Governor Patrick and the Legislature in 2008’s General Governmental Bond Bill which provided $95 million for library construction. It yielded successful projects in the following communities: Athol, Buckland, Dudley* East Boston, Eastham, Edgartown, Everett, Falmouth, Foxborough, Framingham, Granby, Holyoke, Mashpee*, Mattapan, Millis, Reading, Salisbury, Scituate, Shrewsbury, South Hadley, Walpole, Westhampton, West Springfield, and West Tisbury.
It also funded the 2013-2104 Planning and Design Grant round in which $1million was awarded to twenty-one of the twenty-eight libraries that submitted applications. Each community received up to $50,000 to help offset the cost of planning and designing a new or renovated/expanded public library facility and to prepare for the next construction grant round, made possible with the 2014 authorization.
The Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program was first funded in 1987. Since then the program has assisted hundreds of communities in building new libraries or in renovating and expanding existing libraries. In 2008, the MBLC established the Green Library Incentive to assist communities in building libraries that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification requirements. For more information about the program, please visit the MBLC's website.
