Politics & Government

Town Meeting Approves McAuliffe Library Branch Project 149-1

If everything goes on schedule, the new branch library could open in Nobscot by Christmas 2015.

Editor’s Note: Originally published on Updated May 8, 2013 at 11:26 am

Updated to fix broken links

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Framingham Town Meeting approved funds for a new $8.6 million Christa McAuliffe Library branch Wednesday night.

The Special Town Meeting vote was 149-1. The vote was taken electronically.

Find out what's happening in Framinghamwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The vote ended with a very loud and enthusiastic celebration in the back of Nevins Hall. Some in the audience, including Library Trustees, Library employees and residents cheered and even blew noise makers.

The vote was eight years in the making for some of them. In 2005, Town Meeting voted down a proposal to build a new McAuliffe library branch.

Framingham Patch was live blogging during the Special Town Meeting. You can read the transcript here.

Last year, Framingham was awarded a state grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners of $4.2 million for the project.

Special Town Meeting, by law, needed to approve the full cost of the project, including the grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

The Commissioners will pay the town of Framingham 20 percent of the $4.2 million grant over a five-year period.

With last night’s vote, the next step is to finalize that land purchase.

Taxpayers share of the project will be $3.8 million, which will be funded over a 20-year capital bond.

The proposed one-story, L-shaped library will be about triple the size of the current library branch in Saxonville. The new Nobscot library branch will be about 17,000 square feet and have parking for 55 vehicles, said Library Board Trustee and Chair of the Library Building Committee Sam Klaidman, who made a presentation before Town Meeting Wednesday night.

The Framingham Library Foundation has pledged $600,000 to the new McAuliffe branch library project. As of April 1, $400,000 had already been raised.

Klaidman said the library could open by Christmas of 2015.

Many of the Town Meeting Committees gave approval of the project, although some objected to the futuristic design of the building.

The design reflects whom the library will be named after, the late first teacher in space and Framingham native Christa Corrigan McAuliffe.

What is now known as the McAuliffe Library branch opened in Saxonville in opened in 1963, and was later renamed in honor of the astronaut after she died in the 1986 Challenger disaster.


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