The Grafton Public Library Board of Trustees now has until June 30 to secure funding to go along with the $5.1 million grant from the MBLC.
Photo credit: Jennifer Lord Paluzzi (file photo)

GRAFTON, Mass. - The Grafton Public Library Board of Trustees received an extension for the $5.1 million dollar grant originally awarded in July 2011 for a 29,000 square foot expansion of the library Thursday, after a meeting with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Library Director Hilding Hedberg spoke before the MBLC to explain Grafton's situation, and the commissioners extended the deadline for Grafton to secure funding to June 30, though the details of the new project were left to be resolved another day.

"That was the only discussion was about the extension itself," said Board of Trustees Chairman Judy Meichelbeck who also attended the meeting.

The town voted to accept the grant at last year's October Town Meeting, but at the Dec. 13 special election, when the town voted decisively against the $6.6 million the town needed to appropriate to fund its share of the $11.7 million cost.

There are still a number of unknown factors contributing to the extension. Simply holding another election for the same design that would have quadrupled the size of the current facility would seem foolish considering how decisively the town voted against it the first time - 2,533 voted no, while only 1,491 voted in support of the expansion.

Reductions to the size of the project would reduce the cost to the town while maintaining the same $5.1 million contribution from the state. But just how the library would be reduced is still up for discussion. Each section in the library could be reduced in size by a percentage, or perhaps some features could be taken out of the plan.

Answers to those questions are expected to come soon, as the board has just five months to come up with a new plan that the town will approve.