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Date: 10/12/2022
SHUTESBURY – Elaine Puleo was a dean at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a department head in biostatistics for many years. That experience makes her a capable chairperson for the new Library Building Committee.
“I’m an administrative person,” Puleo said. “I like being able to run efficient meetings, and keep committees on task and on time, so that became a natural instinct for me. If there’s a need, I’m there.”
Puleo’s deft handling of meetings will be a valuable skill in building the new library. The library team has a request for qualifications (RFQ) out to solicit an owner’s project manager (OPM). That one step required a number of meetings. The team, which also includes Puleo’s Library Building Committee, the Friends of the Library and library staff, hopes to have an OPM hired by Nov. 1.
“That’s our absolute first [hire],” Puleo said, “someone who will help us hire an architect and move ahead with that. So we’re in the very early stages.”
RFQs from design firms are due back in a couple days, by Oct. 13, when the team will begin reviewing the information received and set up meetings with the interested companies.
Puleo, Library Director Mary Anne Antonellis and the team will follow the same sequence of meetings — with the help of an OPM — to hire an architect. An RFQ will be published for interested architectural firms to respond to. That key actor in the building effort is scheduled to be on board by the end of the year.
That’s when the fun begins: designing the library.
“That part will be really fun,” Antonellis said. “But you have to bring the professionals on board before you can do that.”
Much of the information for the basic design has already been determined. As part of the application for the commonwealth’s Small Library Building Program, which provided a $4 million grant for the library, Antonellis wrote a building program that detailed areas in the library itself. That 80-page document will guide the design process.
“There’s a children’s room, a teen room, a staff work room, a lobby and bathrooms,” Antonellis said, describing some of the planned spaces. “Those are all elements of a building, and in the building program I had to determine what size those different areas would be, and when you add them all up you get the size of the building.”
Antonellis, Puleo and the team’s efforts to secure funding for the library was a herculean task. Besides the $4 million grant from the commonwealth, $600,000 came from the town’s existing cash resources and $1.172 million by town borrowing. The Friends of the Library also raised $600,000 by offering lawn care services, hosting dinners, taking donations, yard sales, bake sales, uncounted community events.
Those dinners were also a fun part of building the new library. The Friends of the Library hosted three or four meals a year, with entertainment, events that were short circuited by the coronavirus pandemic. Antonellis often said the Friends would continue to fundraise, and on a recent Saturday night a lasagna dinner turned into a foot stompin’ outdoor celebration, not only of the library in the works, but also of being unfettered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“People were just happy for the chance to gather together,” Antonellis said. The Butterfly Swing Band pulled people onto the dance floor. “There must’ve been at least 150 people there…We sold out of lasagna.” Most everybody ate pasta under the stars and danced in the pavilion, a reminder of more carefree times and the sweetness of long-overdue success. “We’re still celebrating in really wonderful ways.”
Puleo won’t mind a bit, running all those future meetings. The process is a joyous realization of 15 years of work, including the failure of a previous effort, over a decade ago, to build a new library. All the struggle and bruised feelings have been forgotten.
“I want people to know they can always reach us,” Puleo said. “We have an email address, we have a web page, we have a Next Door Shutesbury site. Get in touch if you have any questions. Come to the meetings. I want people to be involved. That’s the most important thing, to make this a community effort.”
Puleo and Antonellis will host the library design party. They hope everyone in town shows up for the fun.