Plans to renovate Ellsworth’s historic public library are in limbo while staff wait on federal funding to finance the nearly $6 million project.
In March, the library applied for $3 million in congressionally directed spending, also known as earmarks, which will be paired with a $2 million city loan and $1 million in anticipated private fundraising.
The renovation would expand the property — made up of the 209-year-old Tisdale House and a three-story addition built in 1991 — and address safety, accessibility and maintenance concerns.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote in the coming months on the federal spending bills, which will determine if the project moves forward at its full scope.
But no federal funding is guaranteed. If the library doesn’t receive it, the board of trustees — who oversee library operations — is considering how to cut the project’s cost in half.
Trimming the project would be difficult, trustees say, because most of the upgrades are related to safety, accessibility and maintenance.
“There’s nothing in this particular venture that could be called excessive,” trustee chair Craig MacDonald said. “It’s all really focusing on maintenance dynamics.”
Among the most expensive parts of the renovation will be replacing the building’s aging HVAC system, which alone will cost $1.2 million. But the need is urgent, library director Sarah Lesko said, noting that one of the building’s boilers failed on Wednesday. At 36 years old, it’s difficult to find replacement parts for the current HVAC system, MacDonald said.
Compounding the problem, the library’s lower level is not insulated, leaving it particularly cold without a fully operating HVAC system. If fully funded, the renovation would insulate the building’s lower level.
The project would also include a new ADA-compliant entryway, which Lesko said is necessary for accessibility and safety reasons. Two weeks ago, a woman with a walker fell down the library’s front steps, Lesko said, adding that it was not the first time a visitor had fallen at the building’s entryway.
The library does have an ADA-compliant entrance with an elevator at the back of the building, but limited parking by that entrance leaves it difficult for some visitors to access.
The current layout also poses safety risks to the library’s youngest patrons, Lesko said.
“The main entryway divides the children’s room in half,” Lesko said. “For me, even more important than someone falling down the steps, a child going missing? That’s unacceptable — we need a safer children’s space.”
Although the project’s scope depends on funding from Congress, Lesko hopes construction will begin by fall of 2027. A bid request for contractors will likely be posted in August or September, she said.
While the library is a city department, Lesko is reluctant to lean on municipal funds, mindful of the financial pressures Ellsworth residents are facing.
“Our department is in a very unique position than other departments in that we are face to face with Ellsworth residents every day,” Lesko said, “We hear them come in — I don’t want to say complain — but we hear their burdens. We don’t want to add to the taxpayers’ financial worries.
For me it’s incredibly hard to go to council and ask and ask and ask when I know what Ellsworth residents are facing.”
The library operates as a hybrid city department: Lesko answers to both the City Council and the library’s five-person board of trustees, who are elected directly by voters. The library has not received city funds for any capital projects in the last couple of years, Lesko said, noting that repairs are long overdue.
“The library budget has only gone up 5.7% in almost 10 years,” Lesko said.
Although the library draws residents from surrounding Hancock County towns, it receives no county support, Lesko said, despite three consecutive years of denied grant applications and a 2024 request to commissioners for leftover federal pandemic relief funds.
Members of the public use the library’s printer for personal documents — Lesko notes the library is overdue for new copiers — while the county jail often directs released detainees to the library to charge their phones, she added. The library is down the street from the Hancock County courthouse.
“So I think they owe us a call,” Lesko said.
After the renovation, Lesko hopes to turn her attention to growing the library’s endowment fund, which now holds a little more than $1 million. Other area libraries with similar service levels have endowments of $8 to $10 million, she added.
The library will relocate some of its services, including a portion of its book collection, during the renovation, which Lesko expects will take about a year to complete. The library would likely expand its inter-library exchange program from three to five days a week throughout construction, to offset having some of its collection in storage, she added.
While the renovation’s scope remains in limbo until staff receive word on whether they will be granted federal funding, Lesko says they’ve still managed — “one little project at a time” — to make some upgrades to the property, including replacing part of the roof, installing an automatic door opener and fixing the front steps.
