GREENFIELD — In celebration of the fact construction of the new Greenfield Public Library is finally underway, the community is invited to the site on Saturday to sign a 30-foot steel beam that will eventually become part of the structure on Main Street.
The signing event, which will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is an opportunity for the community to become “a permanent piece of the library,” said Pamela McBride, information services assistant at Greenfield Public Library.
“We’ve been waiting so long for construction to begin on the new library and … the community has been overwhelmingly supportive,” she said. “This is a way for everyone to celebrate the fact that construction is happening.”
McBride said she’s already spoken with parents who are excited to bring their children by to sign the beam.
“Their kids can bring their kids in 20 years and say, ‘I was here when this was built; that’s my library — I signed my name on one of the beams that’s holding that library up,’” McBride said.
In 2019 — seven years after the vision for a new library was first discussed — Greenfield voters approved building a new library with a 61% positive vote. The $19.5 million appropriation accounts for construction costs as well the cost of the architect, project manager, furniture and fixtures, according to Library Building Committee Co-Chair Ed Berlin.
In addition to a $9.4 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, the Greenfield Public Library Foundation had said it would contribute about $2 million, reducing the city’s cost to about $8.1 million. The foundation recently announced it had reached its $2 million goal.
Looking out the window from the children’s room of the current library on Wednesday morning to watch the neighboring construction, Library Director Ellen Boyer said it has been “amazing” just to see what the construction workers had accomplished since she arrived to work that day.
“It’s amazing to see the steel,” she said. “It makes it more real to me. When they dug the foundation, you could kind of see what it was going to look like, but now … you really can get a feel for what it’s going to look like.”
Boyer said the project is on time and on budget, and she anticipates being able to move in sometime during the spring of 2023.
“We have been so fortunate not to have experienced any supply chain issues to date, and it doesn’t seem like we will experience any,” she said. “The vendors for furniture and carpeting have all said, ‘We’ve got what you need’ or ‘We will have it for you.’”
Boyer said so many people have been working on this project for so many years that getting to watch it constructed before her eyes “feels like a dream come true.”
Saturday’s event will be held rain or shine, and there will be no cost to sign the beam, McBride said. Permanent markers will be available, and members of the Greenfield Public Library Friends, Trustees and Foundation will attend to answer questions.
Boyer added that since the beam won’t be visible to the naked eye once construction is complete, a guest book will also be available for people to sign or leave a comment.
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne