Joining the Ranks

On Thursday, July 14, Library Trustee Chairwoman Stacey Brandon and I attended the Mass. Board of Library Commissioners' (MBLC) meeting where they announced for the first time the cities and towns which will receive the construction grant awards.

The Sherborn Library did not receive an award in this grant round; rather, we have been asked to review and revise our grant application and designs to the MBLC by January 19, 2012. The independent review committee that scored our overall application found areas they would like us to modify in our plans. We do not yet know what they would like us to modify. However, we were contacted immediately by the MBLC building consultants to make a date with them and our architects to go over the suggested modifications. We are set to do this on July 26.

After we hear what the required changes are that will raise our overall score, we will discuss them locally to ensure they are feasible for Sherborn. We will make any changes that we are able to accomplish, and resubmit the application changes to the MBLC. The MBLC will then rank us on their list of libraries waiting for funding. There are 15 libraries currently on the waiting list. Our goal is to position our grant application to rank us fairly on the list of 15 libraries and reassure our eligibility for the potential $3 million grant award.

While the status is disappointing, it is not unusual for first-time applicants to have to do a bit of tweaking. The library projects on the waiting list will be funded and fulfilled in a future grant round, so while we have that stretch of time ahead of us, we will use that time to refine our plans as necessary, and continue to fund-raise. We want to be ready to move forward when our turn comes around.