WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Milne Public Library officials last week asked the Select Board to allocate American Rescue Plan Act funds to pay for an architect's analysis of the Main Street facility.

 

The chairs of the library's Board of Trustees and Buildings and Grounds Committee each told the board that they want the town to follow through on what they saw as a commitment to share with the trustees the cost of a study by Bennington, Vt.'s, Centerline Architects.

 

The study already is underway, and the trustees have preliminary results outlining time-sensitive and long-term repairs that need to be made to the 52-year-old former school building.

 

MIssing from the preliminary report are cost estimates of the repairs, everything from emergency lighting in the library's bathroom to thermal upgrades to the uninsulated structure.

 

The full architect's analysis costs $29,775. On Monday, the library officials and town manager gave conflicting accounts of how the cost share was discussed when the study was ordered.

 

"The trustees accepted [Centerline's] proposal in expectation the town would share in paying for it," Trustee Charles Bonenti said. "The town manager and [Library Director Pat McLeod] signed it."

 

"It's something the trustees started in conversation with [Town Manager Robert Menicocci] as something the town could make a significant contribution to," Trustees Chair Bridget Spann said. "We were hoping to have [the study] done by now. And we're waiting to keep the process moving. So far, it's been paid from the Trustees' annual fund."

 

The library trustees, an elected body that makes "general operating and administrative policies" at the Milne, conduct an annual fund-raising campaign that generates money to supplement the taxpayer funds that fund the bulk of the operating budget. The library also has a Friends of the Library group that raises funds through a used book store on Spring Street and pays for programming, like the Summer Reading program, and professional development opportunities for library staff.

 

To date, the trustees have paid $8,000 toward the Centerline study, just more than a quarter of the contracted amount.

 

Menicocci said the architect's study was a challenge from a town financing perspective because it was undertaken after the fiscal year began with no money earmarked in the town's budget.

 

"The conversation [with the Trustees] was: We would scour the seat cushions [to find funding] in order to be good partners," Menicocci said. "The reality is at the end of the fiscal year, when we see where there is underspending, that would be a good place to go back and find the funds. It really is kind of a year-end exercise to see if there are remaining moneys.

 

"That was the commitment we made."

 

Select Board Chair Hugh Daley encouraged the Trustees to have patience with Menicocci as the June 30 end of the fiscal year approaches while continuing to pay for the study from money that has been donated to the library.

 

Spann said it was her understanding that ARPA funds could be used.

 

"As far as talking to Bob, we entered into a good faith agreement that we agreed on the value of doing this work," Spann said. "To say to Centerline, ‘Now we have to figure out the funding,' that will take many months. We'll miss the opportunity to seek funding and plan how do the improvements.

 

"My understanding is that ARPA funds would be an appropriate place to request the money. I feel like it's been a conversation with the town manager all along on this."

 

Menicocci said he was clear from Day 1 that the ARPA funds are allocated by the Select Board, not his office.

 

"The commitment from my perspective is at the end of the year to look at where we could potentially help with this," Menicocci said. "My understanding is … you can cover the contract. It's the accounting on the back end, we can figure that out.

 

"To an extent, you guys have to shoulder the burden on the funding up front. When we see how our finances shake out, we can potentially make you whole."

 

Daley said since the Select Board did not have a discussion of ARPA funds on its agenda on Monday, it would be inappropriate to make any decisions about their allocation. In the past, the board has decided to set aside a portion of the federal COVID-relief grant money for unnamed infrastructure projects.

 

Spann asked to get the trustees' ARPA request on the board's agenda sometime in April.

 

In other business on Monday, the Select Board reviewed a couple of articles it is putting on the warrant for May's annual town meeting.

 

One would raise the income limit and lower the age limit for a property tax exemption program for seniors. Another would clarify what flags fly on the town-owned flag poles at Town Hall, Field Park, town cemeteries, the Police Department and the Department of Public Works building.

 

The proposed flag bylaw is, in part, a response to a recent court case out of Boston where a Supreme Court decision made it clear that municipalities should have some sort of official policy in place around flag poles.

 

The bylaw proposed in the board's article would limit the acceptable flags on those poles to the American flag, Commonwealth of Massachusetts flag and POW/MIA flag.

 

Monday it also was revealed that the town meeting warrant will have one article that was introduced by way of citizen's petition, an article that would amend the town's leash bylaw by requiring dogs to be leashed when not on the owner's property in the General Residence District and on the bike and pedestrian path that runs from Syndicate Road to the Spruces Park.

 

Currently, owners are "required to restrain their dogs physically by leash or by voice control when they are not on the owner's property."