Framingham Library Reaches $600,000 Fundraising Goal

The Framingham Library Foundation promised in January 2011, to raise $600,000 towards the cost of construction a new $8.6 million Christa McAuliffe Library branch.

Tuesday night at Special Town Meeting, Foundation Chair Ruth Winett, who is also an elected Library Trustee, and other Library Trustees presented a check for $600,000 to town leaders.

Thanks to 800 “generous donors” and the hard work of the Foundation, Trustees, library staff and the community, Winett announced to Town Meeting the Foundation had reaches its goal.

“The check was so long, it almost didn’t fit in my car,” she said, when presenting it to Town Manager Bob Halpin, Selectmen Chair Charlie Sisitsky and Library Director Mark Contois.

Library Trustee Sam Klaidman also announced last night the library construction is “on time” and ”on budget.”

He said a “soft opening” is expected in January, and when the snow is gone a grand opening in the spring.

He mentioned no date to Town Meeting, but a May 15 date has been discussed.

The new Christa McAuliffe Library branch will be located on Water Street in Nobscot. The current branch is in Saxonville.

The new branch library has a futuristic design, to reflect whom the library will be named after, the late first teacher in space and Framingham native Christa Corrigan McAuliffe.

The new one-story, L-shaped library will be about triple the size of the current McAuliffe Library branch.

Building a new McAuliffe Library branch has been years in the making.

In October 2012, the Framingham Library Foundation and the Framingham Library Trustees were awarded a $4.186 million grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners towards the estimated total construction cost is $8.6 million.

In May 2013, a Special Town Meeting voted 149-1 to build the new Christa McAuliffe branch library.

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