A reminder: The Special Town Meeting which will decide the fate of the library’s renovation and expansion project is to be held in the Belchertown High School gymnasium at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10.  You need to be there!  To make that possible, we’re arranging for free child care to be provided at the high school (it’s not a school night), and we’re exploring the possibility of providing transportation to and from the meeting for those who need it.  If you need child care or transportation and haven’t already given the information to a campaign representative, please email us at info@clappforcommunity.org to let us know how many children you’ll be bringing, along with their ages, or if you need a ride, give us your address.

Nathaniel J. Mouse, mascot of the Clapp Memorial Library’s capital campaign, got another workout last week when library supporters gathered to urge him up the campaign “clock” on the library lawn.    In recent weeks, a surge in new commitments to the library’s expansion has propelled the private fundraising portion of the Clapp campaign to $837,000—just beyond the half-way mark.  The campaign hopes to raise $1.6 million from foundations, corporations and private individuals.  In the last week, the group raised $61,000 toward that goal.  

“That’s comparable to any week we had in the earlier days of the campaign,” said Loy Harris, who chairs the effort.  Although the project has been over ten years in the making, fundraising began in earnest in 2008.   

Harris credited three things for the group’s recent successes: a $50,000 challenge pledge by an anonymous donor and the generous response of a number of donors to that challenge; the efforts of a team of local volunteers who have been actively soliciting gifts and pledges from neighbors and community institutions, and a third pledge, in the amount of $25,000, by the 300-member non-profit group, the Friends of Clapp Memorial Library.     

Friends president Jeanette Tibbetts and several of her members attended the October 29 event.  “The challenge grant provided a wonderful opportunity for us to make our additional pledge now instead of waiting until later,” she said. 
 

In the October Issue of Clapp for Community News, we reported that there would be two articles relating to the library on the warrant for the November 10 Special Town Meeting.  As the articles were then visualized, one would have authorized the Selectmen to acquire the library building and enter into an agreement under which the Clapp Memorial Library would use the building to operate a public library.  The other article would have authorized the appropriation of Town funds to help pay for the project. 

Now, following additional discussions between the Trustees and the Board of Selectmen, the two originally-proposed articles have been combined into a single article which accomplishes both objectives.  Read more, including the texts of the warrant article and the motion . .

The warrant article will be included in printed materials available at the Special Town Meeting, and the motion will be read aloud during the meeting.  Their texts are printed below.  The warrant article has been finalized, and the motion is essentially in final form, although it may undergo minor changes between now and the meeting.   

The motion authorizes the funding of the full $9.3 million estimated cost of the project, but that authorization is contingent on our receiving the State grant, and the amount authorized is reduced by both the State grant and the amounts raised from private fundraising.  Passage of this article will complete the requirements for us to receive the State grant. 

Because it includes an authorization of Town spending, the article will require a two-thirds affirmative vote to pass. 

                               Article: To see if the Town will vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire from the Clapp Memorial Library, a corporation established by Chapter 134 of the Acts of 1887, by gift, purchase or otherwise the parcel of land and the improvements thereon known as the Clapp Memorial Library, located at 19 South Main Street, Belchertown, and described in a deed recorded with the Hampshire Registry of Deeds in Book 413, Page 101, for public library purposes, and further to authorize the Selectmen to lease said property to or contract with the Clapp Memorial Library with respect to the terms of the donation thereof and/or for the operation thereof as a free public library for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Town, for a term of up to ninety-nine (99) years and on such terms and conditions and for such consideration, which may be nominal consideration, as the Selectmen deem appropriate; and further  to see if the Town will appropriate a sum of money to pay costs of designing, renovating and expanding the Clapp Memorial Library, including originally equipping and furnishing the addition to said library, and for the payment of all other costs incidental and related thereto, including a project manager, and to determine whether this amount shall be raised by taxation, by transfer from available funds, by borrowing or otherwise, or take any other action relative thereto.

Motion:  I move the Town vote to authorize the Board of Selectmen to acquire from the Clapp Memorial Library, a corporation established by Chapter 134 of the Acts of 1887, by gift, purchase or otherwise the parcel of land and the improvements thereon known as the Clapp Memorial Library, located at 19 South Main Street, Belchertown, and described in a deed recorded with the Hampshire Registry of Deeds in Book 413, Page 101, for public library purposes, and further authorize the Selectmen to lease said property to or contract with the Clapp Memorial Library with respect to the terms of the donation thereof and/or for the operation thereof as a free public library for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Town, for a term of up to ninety-nine (99) years and on such terms and conditions and for such consideration, which may be nominal consideration, as the Selectmen deem appropriate; and further that the sum of $9,300,000 be and hereby is appropriated to pay costs of designing, renovating and expanding the Clapp Memorial Library, including originally equipping and furnishing the addition to said library and for the payment of all other costs incidental and related thereto, including a project manager, and that to meet this appropriation, the Treasurer, with the approval of the Selectmen is authorized to borrow said amount under and pursuant to Chapter 44, Section 7(3A) of the General Laws, or pursuant to any other enabling authority, and to issue bonds or notes of the Town therefor; provided, however, that no sums shall be borrowed or expended hereunder unless and until the Town shall have been awarded a grant to pay costs of this project from The Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the amount of at least $3,300,000.  The amounts authorized to be borrowed pursuant to this vote shall be reduced to the extent of any grants or gifts received by the Town for this project, from any sources whatsoever.