CAPE ELIZABETH — If there’s any town in Maine that can raise money to build a new
library, it’s Cape Elizabeth. Everybody seems to agree on that. But even in
Maine’s most affluent community, these are strange times, and people need
coaxing before they’ll warm to the idea of opening their pocketbooks for a
public project.
More importantly, potential donors need to see any new library as
a “cultural center,” and not just a repository for books.
Library officials had hoped to raise as much as $3 million in
private donations for a new library, with the expectation of bonding the rest
of the $8.5 million project. A referendum vote was expected for this November.
However, with support for the project still soft, Demont urged trustees to
delay the referendum until June 2013, at the earliest.
“We think it’s too fast and too furious and, basically, setting
you up for far less support if you tried to push this forward this year,” Bob
Demont, a consultant hired to assess the fundraising potential of the project,
said in a Jan. 17 presentation to town-appointed trustees and members of the
library’s nonprofit fundraising foundation. “Those communities that have
launched too quickly in these troubling times into public referendums have
found that it’s been problematic.
“We believe you will raise twice as much money if you take a year
and plan for a capital campaign rather than rush to a November referendum,”
said Demont, adding that, in order to successfully win support for a new
library, proponents must push it as a community and cultural center.
“If you talk about the value of the library as a gathering
center, people will think more and more that they are investing in their
community, as well as in a building for books and technology that most people
have in their own homes, frankly,” said Demont. “Libraries are changing right
now and it’s confusing to people who wonder if they are still relevant.”
“If people emotionally experience the need and the value,
they will contribute,” agreed trustee Chairwoman RuthAnne Haley. “We have to educate the
community and get them to embrace this wonderful place that we envision, or to
be without what we have.”
Given $30,000 last September to assess fundraising potential for
an $8.5 million library reconstruction project, Demont Associates, of Portland,
interviewed 57 local residents, including library trustees, foundation board
members, town officials, a construction study oversight committee and people
identified as likely donors. Results of an 18-point questionnaire indicate the
money is out there –– more than half of all respondents felt there are folks in
town capable of making $500,000 donations – but few seemed eager to donate
themselves.
While 81 percent said they’d give something, a mere 26 percent
deemed Thomas Memorial Library a “priority” for their own philanthropic
gift-giving. More alarmingly, only 74 percent feel Cape Elizabeth needs a new
library at all, despite a widely circulated 2007 report that lists 102
structural and design deficiencies in the building, which is actually an
amalgamation of five separate structures, including three one-room
schoolhouses, each at least a century old, moved to the site and linked via two
connecting annexes.
According to the 2007 needs assessment, prepared by Himmel &
Wilson Library Consultants, of Milton, Wis., problems at Thomas Memorial
Library include floors in the children’s wing that can’t handle the weight load
of books, aisles in the adult wing that do not meet ADA standards, issues with
moisture and humidity (a friend neither to books nor computers), poor
ventilation, and no facilities to run the wiring required of modern libraries.
“Another of the gross inadequacies is that the heating plant and
control systems are just completely obsolete,” Scherma said. “Plus, nothing
here was designed with any concept of modern plumbing involved.”
"If this was a school building, it'd be shut down," said
Haley.
The Himmel & Wilson report concluded that the cost of
renovating any part of the existing library is too great and the historical
significance of the component pieces too low, to justify saving the
structure. Consequently, Casaccio's original design, presented to focus
groups in June, was a complete rebuild, which clocked in at 23,000 square feet.
However, public reaction to the first design prompted a do-over.
The most recent concept captures a more Colonial-era feel by retaining the
section of the library that fronts Scott Dyer Road, built in 1910 as the Pond
Cove School, and extending the new wing to two floors.
The two-story design also preserves the front lawn (where a
performance space may be added) and a buffer zone between the library and the
school and room for 50 parking spots.
In order to match up correctly with the old Pond Cove section, the
lower floor of the new library would be sunk several feet into the ground.
Patrons coming through the new front door would first have to descend “seven or
eight steps” to that lower section, which would contain meeting rooms, storage,
mechanical rooms and space for the Historical Society, or a few steps up, to
the collection.
The Pond Cove building would house the children’s section, while
the primary collection, and the young adult section would all be contained in a
new wing behind the school.
The roof over the main section would have three traditional
dormers on each side of a hipped roof.
A CLOSER LOOKA planning study for a new Cape Elizabeth Library, presented Jan. 17 by Portland-based fundraising consultant Demont Associates, compares results of a survey of 53 potential donors (CAPE) with the “Demont Positive Benchmark” (DPB) – a minimum threshold of support Bob Demont says his company has found over its 30-year history to be critical to a successful capital campaign. Soft numbers in some areas prompted Demont to recommend that the town put off a bond referendum until June, 2013, at the earliest.
CAPE DPB
Has positive image of current library 51% 82%
Agrees with need for new library 74 95
Accepts proposed building plan 74 87
Likes private/public funding method 85 87
Deems library a philanthropic priority 26 50
Receptive to a capital campaign 36 66
Thinks 2012 “right time” for fundraising 67 86
Thinks $25,000 donors available 59 41
Thinks $100,000 donors available 54 29
Thinks $500,000 donors available 52 33
Thinks $3 million goal attainable 40 30
Willing to donate money 81 80
Willing to volunteer 40 66
Willing to take a leadership role 23 35
Faith in trustee’s fundraising ability 10 39
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