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Date: 12/5/2023
LUDLOW — The Board of Selectmen approved approximately $16,900 from the Building Infrastructure Fund for repairs to the Hubbard Memorial Library.
Hubbard Memorial Library Board of Trustees Chair Linda Collette met with the Board of Selectmen at its Nov. 21 meeting to discuss the request for funds and why it would be nice to receive some funds now.
Recently the Hubbard Memorial Library suffered some water damage after a recent storm and the DPW was able to fix some of the leaks.
Collette said, “We get on average about 800 to 1,000 visitors a week, so the great thing is our wonderful library, and our historical library is getting used. We want to be able to fix those issues.”
Although the $16,900 will help fix peeling paint, small cracks in the wall and other small projects, the Hubbard Memorial Library has requested more money from the Capital Improvement Planning Committee.
Collette added, “It is beyond peeling paint. The plaster is actually pulling away. There are about 30 cracks in that room alone. We had the roof inspected and there were some minor repairs done for that because as we all know everything starts from the roof down, so we didn’t know what the cracking was from, the window or the roof.”
Two years ago, the library decided to start with getting inspectors to look at the windows and decided to take the lowest bid at $16,000 but soon discovered that the contract did not include many of the fixes that the library wanted to see done.
Collette said, “This explained a lot of the disparity between the other bids that we got. We were getting bids in the $80,000 for that and everyone who came out to look at the windows, one gentleman said while it was not the worst he has ever seen, they definitely needed to be done within a year or so and that was two years ago.”
The Capital Improvement Planning Committee two years ago approved approximately $16,000 and then approximately $46,000 the following year for the window restoration project.
In total there has been $62,000 approved for the project that has yet to be used since there wasn’t an exact quote yet.
After getting inspected, it was discovered that the windows contained asbestos and are also historical with the building being over 100 years old, raising the price of the project.
“We all know the minute that word is mentioned your project price can quadruple and that is pretty much the price we are at right now. That is the reason for the large expense for that,” Collette said.
Strange added, “That elevated the project to around $281,000 I believe the project is at now.”
On Nov. 20, there was a Capital Improvement Planning Committee meeting at which the library submitted a request for approximately $214,000 for a window restoration project.
Board of Selectmen Chair James Gennette, who also serves on the Capital Improvement Planning Committee, said, “We are talking about it and still in the beginning stages of figuring out where all the capital funding and expenses are. The Hubbard Memorial Library is very active in town, they do a lot of stuff down there. This is an actual functioning building in town that we use heavily.”
The committee received a list of capital requests from each department and will go through them at their next meeting.
Strange said that a draft of the capital expense list will be presented to the committee, and they will decide the final list that will be presented at Town Meeting for approval.
He also discussed if this project could also be funded with the newly expanded district improvement financing boundary known as the State Street/Ludlow Mills District Improvement Financing Program.
“At Town Meeting, we will be submitting a warrant article that lists all the projects we are anticipating can be funded through Mill 8 being completed and that revenue being available for the DIF,” Strange said.