Mexico Public Library to receive $50,000 for building project

So, it's a great time to be the Mexico Public Library.

Senator Patty Ritchie's office announced last week that as part of the $148,000 in special funding that the senator has secured for libraries in her district, Mexico Public Library will receive $50,000 to help with a building project. 

Mexico Public Library, Mexico, NY.

Dorothy Dineen is the library director at Mexico, and she was kind enough to take the time to tell me a little about this unexpected - but very welcome - news:

Angela: Did you have any idea this was coming?

Dorothy: No! I last spoke with a representative of Senator Ritchie's office over the summer.  She asked about our facility needs and if we had any projects going on. 

We had actually hired an architect in 2012 to do a facilities study for us and help us come up with a renovation plan, which they did.  The first phase of that was exterior masonry work that was a must to do because it was required for safety and structural reasons.  We applied for a construction grant and completed that work last year.  The rest of their plan was renovation of currently unused space on the second floor, which included adding more exits, stairways, etc. and their estimate was $500,000!

In the midst of the facility study, they discovered an issue with our roof that would need to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

So anyway, we were at that phase when I talked with Senator Ritchie's office over the summer. I explained about our roof issue and also that we were looking to break up that huge $500,000 renovation into smaller manageable chunks that we could do in phases, the first being a much needed upgrade to our current meeting/program room. 

When I was speaking with her office, I thought it was for one of those $3,000 grants that we were grateful to have received from Senator Ritchie before.  I was completely floored when I read the letter that said we had been granted $50,000!

The current second floor meeting room space during a library program.

Angela: Wow. That's pretty outstanding. So, you'll use the $50,000 for the roof and the second floor upgrade?

Dorothy: Yes, that's the plan.  We will meet with the architect again in January and then begin getting project estimates to submit.  Hopefully we can begin work in the spring.

Angela: That's wonderful. Out of curiosity, how old is the building?

Dorothy: It was built approximately 1868 and was a store, I think.  It was owned by the Brown Family of Grandma Brown's Bean fame in the early 1900's (they made the beans here) and was given to the village in the late 1970's for the library.

Thanks to Dorothy for chatting with The Frozen Librarian, and once again, congratulations!