Lanesborough Library, Town Hall Upgrades Coming
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Planned upgrades to the library and Town Hall are still in progress despite supply-chain related delays.
The town voted at a special town meeting in January to approve $100,000 of free cash to renovate several aspects of town hall and the library. Proposed improvements include new carpet, new windows, washing and painting of both the interior and exterior of the building.
Library Director Sheila Parks said she has spoken to the contractors, who recently took measurements for the building. There have been delays in the process, she said, because of supply-chain issues.
"Things take longer," she said at Tuesday's library board of directors meeting. "Especially with your supply chain issues or whatever else. The wheels turn slowly."
Parks said she expressed concerns to contractors that the library windows might have lead paint around them. She said she does not expect work on the windows to begin until 2023.
"If it turns out they are actually doing de-leading in the library, I'm not going to stay open. That's not safe," she said.
The library carpet will be done by the same company as the rest of Town Hall, despite being a separate bid. Parks said she would discuss with staff to decide on a final carpet pattern.
"It's been getting much worse again this time of year," she said of the carpet. "I had to more than once tell people today be careful, watch out for that bump in the rug. I have the sign up in the entry way, saying please excuse our bumpy rug."
Parks said the library gets to choose what color of paint it will get and expects to keep it close to the current color. Painting, she said, could be done as early as this fall.
"I'm going to go with something similar to what we currently have," she said. "Just sort of an off-white cream or something like that."
In other business, the library's five T-Mobile hotspots, paid for by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, will go offline Sept. 30. The library has already purchased three new Mobile Beacon hotspots, which also use T-Mobile.
"Anybody who uses our hotspots says it's been very good," Parks said of T-Mobile service in town. "There's nothing that gives you 100 percent coverage all over Lanesborough, that's an issue with Lanesborough. But most people said T-Mobile works for them."
Parks said the new hotspots should be ready for use by October. The library's hotspot policy will be tweaked in accordance with the new hotspots.
