ORANGE — The town will ask for its voters’ blessing to apply for a grant to finance Wheeler Memorial Library’s first significant renovation since it opened in 1914.
Adoption of the 12th and final article on Saturday’s special town meeting warrant will allow Library Director Jessica Magelaner to apply for Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners money to expand and improve the library at 49 East Main St. Magelaner said securing the grant would mean Orange would be reimbursed 40 to 50 percent of the project’s cost, a figure that is “impossible to say at this point.”
The library director explained the renovation’s design — by Johnson Roberts Associates in Somerville — is not yet done. This would occur if permission is given to pursue the grant.
As the design stands, the renovation would include a new roof and expansion of the building into the back parking lot. What are currently the building’s front and side entrances would become emergency-only exits and a new entrance would be built in the rear of the building. This new entrance, Magelaner said, would open to a lobby and a community room accommodating 75 to 100 people, depending on furniture size. Magelaner also said the room would be large enough for various municipal government meetings.
The expansion would include a circulation workroom, two bathrooms, fiction and non-fiction book stacks, a room for young adults, and a bookdrop that can accommodate even fragile items and secure them inside the building.
What is considered the library’s main floor is roughly 35 inches above ground level and any expansion would have to be built appropriately, according to Magelaner. She said the reading rooms will remain and keep “the original woodwork and all the old stuff that people love.”
“What people have said to me is that they love the original building, and what they really mean is they love these original reading rooms,” she said in her office.
The building now has 6,324 square feet.
The grant application deadline is Jan. 26.
Magelaner, who began working at Wheeler in January, was most excited about the potential for a children’s room on the second floor. She said most libraries, including Wheeler, have the children’s room in the basement.
“It’s mildewy, there’s no natural light, we have to run the dehumidifier down there constantly,” she said. “I want the kids up in the light, with nice windows, lots of nice natural light, where they have a space that’s all their own. Right now, our children’s programming room is also the meeting room and the storage room and the staff break room.”
Magelaner said Orange successfully applied for an 80-percent grant in 2003 but voters struck it down in the final stage because they did not want to finance the remaining 20 percent. She said research and design work has been funded by design grants acquired in 2003 and 2008 and by donations.
“Voting ‘Yes’ on Article 12 does not commit the town to spending money. We’ll be asking for that at the June town meeting,” she said. “By then, we’ll have a finalized design.”