,A county revitalization grant has given the North Wales Library a big fundraising boost and library members are now almost halfway to the total they'll need to relocate to their future home.
Ana Hartman did the honors of updating the thermometer-shaped fundraising meter recently, while her husband Harry and library executive director Jayne Blackledge looked on.
"Our numbers are looking pretty good. We started pretty seriously with fundraising at the beginning of the year, and right now we're sitting at $928,000," said Harry Hartman, treasurer for the North Wales Library.
And after word of the revitalization grant came down and Ana (a member of the library's Capital Campaign Committee) filled in a little more of that thermometer, they're looking for even more help from the community, to meet their total fundraising goal of $1.9 million.
"Right now we're in the final stages of planning the new building," Blackledge said.
"It'll have a fireplace with plenty of seating, because we literally have only one chair where we are now, and a lobby area with permanent display cases of local artwork, so it'll be a little museum-y," she said.
The current facility occupies roughly 3,000 square feet and has been housed within North Wales Elementary School since 1927.
The new library building on
Pennsylvania Avenue, which Blackledge hopes they will occupy by the summer of 2010, will offer more than 10,000 square feet, allowing the library to offer much more to patrons.
Plans for the new library were revealed earlier this year, and include plenty of seating and reading spaces, computer tables with Internet access, and two public meeting rooms with a small adjoining kitchen.
"We've really been trying to take into account what our patrons would like to see. We'll have two skylights too, it'll be a bright, cheerful place," she said.
To cover the costs of all of that, however, the Capital Campaign Committee sent out a letter last month to all residents in the 19454 ZIP Code, including North Wales Borough and Upper Gwynedd and Montgomery townships, asking for tax-deductible donations.
Members of the committee have also been pursuing in-kind contributions, and grants such as the $350,000 revitalization grant recently awarded to the library by the Montgomery County commissioners.
"We had $400,000 come in from an anonymous donor, which covered half of the purchase price of the new building, and we just got the $350,000 grant from the county commissioners," Harry Hartman said.
"We've had about $65,000 to $70,000 come in so far in donations, along with about $70,000 in a match from the anonymous donor, who's willing to match up to $100,000 in donations if we can get that much," he said.
The $350,000 grant covers almost 20 percent of the $1.9 million the library estimates it needs to complete relocation and renovation to their new property, and the anonymous donor's contributions could reach $500,000, more than 25 percent of the total.
Kirk Field, the library board's president, also expressed his thanks for the county Revitalization Board's support.
"That support not only provides needed dollars for the project, but also lends broad endorsement for our plans to make this new library facility a great community center and asset to serve residents of the borough, and its surrounding townships," Field said. "These funds will help convert an outdated industrial building into an attractive intellectual center."
And these days, free public libraries like North Wales' are more important than ever for the community, Blackledge said.
"Especially when the economy turns down, people don't purchase books, they go to libraries instead. If you're looking for a free program or a place to take your kids, we have plenty, and if you need online access, or even to apply for a job online, you'll be able to do that at our new library too," she said.