ORANGE — Wheeler Memorial Library can use about 38% of a federal Community Development Block Grant for a long-needed roof repair project.
Orange is set to receive $849,465 disseminated through the state from the federal government, and $325,920 is destined for roof work at the 49 East Main St. library.
“This is overdue. The work is overdue,” said Jason Sullivan-Flynn, who has been director of the library for the past two years. “It’s all good news.”
The estimated construction cost is $246,645. Architectural services are expected to run $54,390 in addition to $24,885 set aside for contingency costs.
Sullivan-Flynn said the Selectboard late last year approved the library’s use of the CDBG money following a “longstanding gentleman’s agreement” that if the library’s board of trustees funded the design of a new roof, the Selectboard would allocate money for the repair work. He said Gale Associates designed the roof for $75,000, but the repair work has not yet gone out to bid.
Sullivan-Flynn said he hopes the work will start by the beginning of the summer. The project is expected to last six months.
The library is a two-story solid brick masonry structure with steel framing. Its asphalt-shingled, sloped roof sections begin at the outer edges of the low-sloped upper roof, and end at the eaves and balustrade at the top of the second floor. All layers of the low-sloped roof system will be removed down to sound decking and replaced with in-kind materials. The sloped roof sections will also be stripped down to sound decking and replaced with an asphalt shingle roof system.
Due to extensive water infiltration, it is expected that the wood-plank decking will require replacement. The repointing of chimneys and restoration of the cementitious features and brickwork of the balustrades are included in the scope of work.
Officially dedicated and opened to the public in 1914, Wheeler Memorial Library has been in disrepair for years. The roof regularly leaks and the building, which is not wheelchair-accessible, has no dedicated staff space and just one small bathroom. The library’s basement — where the children’s section is — was closed from July 2024 to May 2025 due to flooding that spared all the books and computers, but destroyed the carpets. This forced children’s programming to be moved to the Moore-Leland Library at 172 Athol Road for 10 months. The basement had long had extremely poor ventilation and relied almost entirely on ceiling fans and a dehumidifier.
Sullivan-Flynn said the lingering water damage can be addressed after the roof work is completed.
In November 2022, residents turned down a debt-exclusion override that would have authorized the town to borrow up to $10.4 million to supplement a $5 million state grant for a renovation project at Wheeler Memorial Library.
According to the library’s website, the library was a gift to the town from Almira Wheeler Thompson in honor of her late husband, John W. Wheeler, a lifelong resident of Orange and president of the New Home Sewing Machine Co. Construction began in the fall of 1912.