The Ellsworth City Council on Monday approved borrowing $2 million to finance the city’s library renovation, an essential piece to landing federal funding for the expansion project.
The vote passed 5-1. Councilor Steven O’Halloran opposed the motion.
City Manager Charlie Pearce will now shop around for bond anticipation notes and then return to the council for final approval.
The city is applying for $3 million in congressionally directed funding, formerly known as earmarks, to pay for nearly half of its almost $6 million library expansion project. As a condition of that funding application, the city had to agree to match at least 50% of that award, should it be granted.
The city would not borrow the money unless it wins the federal grant funding.
With the federal funding and bond anticipation note, Ellsworth now has about $800,000 left to cover for its library renovation, which will expand the historic building and address safety and accessibility concerns. The library already has $555,000 on hand and expects to raise the remainder through a capital campaign, Pearce said.
Because the library is owned by the city, it doesn’t qualify for many nonprofit grants that could typically fund a library renovation.
The city previously applied for congressionally directed funding in March 2025 but was denied after, among other challenges, the City Council didn’t vote to endorse the application, according to Sarah Lesko, the library’s director.
This time around, the city called a last-minute special meeting to take action in support of the federal funding request. This was in part because the congressional spending applications are only open for short windows of time: Representative Jared Golden’s applications close Wednesday and those for Senators Susan Collins and Angus King are due later this month.
The city is only submitting congressionally directed spending requests for the library project this year, Pearce said.
Councilors were divided over how much to request in federal funding and how much they were willing to match with city funds. The city manager initially proposed to apply for $2.5 million in congressional appropriations, matched with $1.25 million in city funding.
Councilor O’Halloran cautioned that the city was being “greedy” for requesting more federal funding.
“I think we should be asking for more than what we expect to get,” Councilor Tabatha White said. “I’d like to see our federal tax dollars coming back into our community that serves well more than our actual residents of Ellsworth. I don’t think it’s greedy to ask for more in this case because we do serve quite a few people, not just with the library but the city in general.”
As the Hancock County seat, Ellsworth’s city-owned library serves several surrounding towns that don’t have their own public libraries.
Councilors also approved a motion proclaiming their support for the federal funding application. O’Halloran opposed that motion.
“I’m haunted by the fuzzy math I’m listening to tonight,” O’Halloran said. “I’m a big believer in our library, but this city has spent so much money.”