GREENFIELD — Some gave 50 cents, at least one gave $5,000.
Whatever their means, residents supporting a new Greenfield library showed up in force Saturday to donate to the $19.5 million project — a project that was at least temporarily shelved last week after arguments in City Council over funding.
More than 100 people showed up to the current library Saturday morning, marching from High Street to the Main Street building, lining up and donating or pledging money to the library representatives inside. No total amount of money donated or pledged was immediately determined, but library trustee Bill Benson said it was definitely “in the thousands,” having seen one pledge of $5,000 handed in.
“One woman gave 50 cents, because that’s what she could,” Benson said. “People were disgusted with what they saw (at the City Council meeting).”
The new library, if built, would be funded with a $9.4 million grant from the state, the rest of the money coming from tax payers and private donations.
City Council stalled the potential project at the Wednesday, Dec. 19 meeting, with some councilors — like Precinct 1 Councilor Vern Sund and Vice President Penny Ricketts — voting to table the library project after concerns about how the city would fund it, or in Ricketts’ case seeing that if it was indeed voted up or down at the council meeting, it was likely to fail.
But library staff were encouraged by the support shown on Saturday, remaining optimistic the project will happen. If built, the new library would be 26,800 square feet compared to the current 15,253-square-foot building built in 1797. In addition to being more spacious, with rooms for a variety of meetings and programs, the new library would include improved handicap accessibility.
“I was crying,” said Marjorie Curtis, who collected donations from the marchers in a clear container.
“It was so kind of all these people to spend their hard-earned money to support us,” she added.
The library discussion will likely continue at next month’s City Council meeting, and the city has until April 30 to match the state funds for the new building.
The library has begun a campaign to raise $2 million in private donations. The campaign had received at least $50,000 in pledges before the Dec. 19 City Council meeting, and thousands more at the Saturday showing.
“We want the city council to understand the donations will come,” said Mary McDonough, who handed out pledge forms to library supporters as they exited the building.
“We’re going to show the council that this is for everybody,” said local businessman Joseph Ruggeri.
After leaving the library, the supporters continued their march to the Greenfield Common, where they chanted, waved to cars and held signs with slogans like, “A book a day keeps tyranny away.”
Library project supporter Fardeen Chowdhury said a new library would be “a great equalizer in the town,” because it would benefit people of all ages and incomes.
“I think a library means a lot of things to a town,” Chowdhury said. “It’s a resource for people, and it’s a free resource for using the internet, which not everyone can afford.”
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.