SKOWHEGAN — The Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation has awarded the Skowhegan Free Public Library $50,000 toward the installation of a new elevator needed to make the library compliant with the American with Disabilities Act.
The total cost of the elevator is $100,000, library director Melissa Gaspar said.
The library also received a $2,500 grant from the Maine State Museum to be used for renovations. The grant provides funds to assist Maine’s nonprofit cultural organizations to improve facilities that house historically, scientifically or artistically significant collections, according to Gaspar.
Additional funds for the library elevator and for Project 2012 renovations also will be generated with a benefit auction Friday at the Tewksbury Building on Island Avenue.
Auction items include a week’s vacation for six in a Florida condominium and a ride on the Kennebec River in an amphibious car, with lunch. There also are a wooden garden bench, works of art and antique rugs. A new, unopened set of Louise Coburn’s “Skowhegan on the Kennebec” also will be auctioned.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. to view sale items. The auction begins at 7 p.m., Gaspar said. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Tickets are on sale at the library. For more information, call 474-9072
The $2,500 New Century Community Program Historical Collections Facilities grant is part of a program approved by Maine voters in a 2007 bond issue. Gaspar said the library will use the money to create a genealogy storage area in the basement, which will be temperature- and humidity-controlled.
“This new area will become the new Genealogy Room for research and public use once the elevator has been installed to make the cellar accessible,” Gaspar said. “The area will safely store our many volumes of the bound Somerset Reporter, some very historic newspapers from the 1840s called the ‘Anti-Slavery Statements’ and other historically significant books.
“The new safe storage area will insure that our many priceless historical books will be kept safe and secure for years to come.”
Many of the books currently are kept in the attic, which is subject to extremes of heat and cold, Gaspar said. The grant requires one-to-one matching funds. The Library Renovation Committee will match the grant funds, she said.
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