ROCKPORT, Maine — Rockport voters will be asked in November to borrow up to $2 million to help build a new library.
The Rockport Select Board voted unanimously Monday night to hold the bond referendum on Nov. 8. A public hearing will be held 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Rockport Opera House.
The Ad-Hoc Library Committee has proposed a two-story library on the site of the former library in the village. The committee presented two options last month, which included a library with a patio roof. The proposal recommended Monday night was for one with a pitched roof and no patio.
The committee said the proposed design would be more fitting with the neighborhood. The exterior of the 9,360-square-foot building will be brick.
The cost of constructing the new building, along with equipment and furniture for the library, is estimated at nearly $4 million. A fundraising committee will work to raise $2 million to match the money to be borrowed by the town.
The committee projected that the cost to the average homeowner with property assessed at $361,000 would be an additional $29 in property taxes annually if the town borrows the $2 million.
Issues yet to be decided are whether to make the section of Limerock Street adjacent to the library one-way and how much money that the Maine Department of Transportation would contribute to change the intersection by the library.
An additional $300,000 would be needed to reconstruct the intersection where the library would be built and another $121,000 would be necessary for upgrades to the adjacent Memorial Park. Neither of those are addressed in the bond issue.
The town currently has a two-year lease for space on Route 1 for its library. The town moved to that location in December after determining that the former 3,300-square-foot library in the village was in poor condition. The town has an option to lease the Route 1 property for additional years if needed.
The Select Board created a library planning committee late last year to plan for a new facility. The town has debated the issue of whether to build a new library and where it should be located for the past several years.