GREENFIELD — After a months-long delay, masonry work is now underway at the new Greenfield Public Library on Main Street.
A shipment of 5,000 bricks arrived last week, with another shipment expected next week, according to Owner’s Project Manager Mike DelVecchio, of P-Three Inc. Bricks were last anticipated to arrive by mid-August, but in their absence construction plans were “re-sequenced” to keep the project on track.
“I don’t foresee any issues scheduling-wise,” DelVecchio told members of the Library Building Committee at their meeting Thursday evening.
Move-in is still anticipated by spring 2023.
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 as 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 pledged to raise about $2 million, reducing the city’s cost to about $8.1 million. The foundation announced in January it had reached its $2 million goal. Since then, it has made $1 million in payments to the city.
Mayor Roxann Wedegartner thanked the foundation again for its contributions, and in particular, for its $500,000 payment to the city early last week. Library Building Committee Co-Chair Tim Farrell noted that the $2 million in donations is made up not only of cash donations but pledges, meaning sums of money may have been committed over a period of years.
Continuing his update to the Library Building Committee, DelVecchio added that mechanical, engineering and plumbing work is “progressing well.” In the latest email update from P-Three Inc., sent out late last week, those systems are 99% complete.
Off-site, the millworkers are creating the ash veneer panels and all the linear ash wood stock that will make the baseboards and trims, according to the update. Those are expected to begin arriving in late October.
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.