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STAR • JULY 10 - 16, 2008
Library supporters breathe a sigh of relief over funding By Lynn R. Parks Library supporters in western Sussex County breathed a sigh of relief last week, when funding for their projects was included in the state’s budget. The Bridgeville Public Library received a $1 million matching grant that will enable it to continue plans toward construction of a $2.3 million facility. And after the Seaford District Library was notified in May that a $2 million matching grant that had been promised it would have to be eliminated from the budget due to an income shortfall, the funding came through. It will be used for construction of a new $4.8 million facility. Planners for the new Bridgeville library plan to break ground in August, librarian Karen Johnson said. The 13,500-square foot library will be built on South Cannon Street, where the old town and the new Heritage Shores golf community meet. In Seaford, workers will break ground for the 18,000-square foot facility in late September or early October, according to Barb Allen, co-chair of the fundraising campaign. That facility will be built on about four acres that the library bought from the city in 2003 in the Ross Business Park, next to the Ross Plantation. Both Johnson and Allen expressed gratitude that funding for their projects was included in the $3.384 billion state budget. “We are very appreciative of all of the hard work that Sen. Bob Venables and Rep. Danny Short put in to get us this money,” Allen said. “We are extremely pleased,” added Johnson. “We needed this money to move forward.” Both projects are awaiting final plan approvals. Johnson said that the Bridgeville library will be finalizing its building plans within the next 30 days and submitting them to the town of Bridgeville for approval. Preliminary site plans for the Seaford library were ap-
Hospitals, too, are relieved by outcome. Page 49
proved by the city of Seaford in September; the city will still have to approve final site plans. In Bridgeville, state funding was especially critical as $700,000 earmarked for the library construction, as well as land donated for the new facility, have to be used by Dec. 31. (Johnson said that town commission president Joseph Conaway was successful in getting the original deadline of June 30 extended six months.) The money is part of the commissioners’ development fund, money that is raised through a special tax assessment on residents of Heritage Shores. Johnson said that the library still has to raise between $300,000 and $500,000 for its construction project. The library recently received its first large private grant, for $30,000 from the Marmot Foundation. Ruth Skala, treasurer of the Friends of the Bridgeville Library, said that the group will meet soon to plan fundraisers for the upcoming year. “We were working so hard, hoping that the state legislature would back us,” Skala said. “Now that state funding is sure, that will help us.” In Seaford, fundraising is still in its quiet phase, Allen said. That phase is “going quite well,” she added. She expects that the community phase of the fundraising will start after the first of the year. In addition to the $2.4 million to match state money for construction, the committee also hopes to raise $200,000 for furniture and equipment, $600,000 for operations and $1 million for an endowment fund to pay for future operations in the library. Funding for the library construction projects was included in the state’s bond bill. The $601.7 million bill includes $268.6 million for transportation projects and $207 million for school construction.
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