Madison Says 'Thank You' For Residents Supporting Library Project

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

MADISON, CT – Officials want to make sure Madison residents know they are thankful for the town’s support of a $15 million expansion project for the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library project. So they’ve hung a sign for all to see outside the front door of the library.

The library is about $1 million short of what it needs to finish the project, now slated for a start date of late in 2018, according to Charlie Tyson, head of the “Futures” Campaign.

The Futures Campaign is the one that is charged with coming up with the last dollars necessary to complete the library expansion which when completed will more than double the current 17,000 square foot design of the current building.

The library expansion is close to a decade in the making. A bigger expansion project was defeat in a close referendum vote in 2008. This plan is smaller. It calls for increasing the building to 37,000 square feet and adding a 45-space parking lot.

While the overall cost is $15 million, grants, fundraising and previous bonding cover about $14 million of it – meaning there’s only about a $1 million to go.

Tyson said the “Futures” and library officials will spend the time between now and the start of construction campaigning for funding, adding that the need for funds will not stop once the construction begins.

He added that the real “intense” fundraising will likely be done once the middle of the 2018 comes – a few months before the first shovels hit the ground.

Photo credit: Jack Kramer