Library fund raising goes on hold

The public will be approached early next year and asked for its help in funding the project.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A fund-raising campaign to help pay for a $3.3 million Lepper Library expansion and renovation is being postponed.
Library officials had expected to kick off the event this month, but that schedule is being pushed back to get past the holidays and to allow more time to organize the fund- raising effort, Nancy Simpson, library director, said Friday.
It's likely the fund raising will begin early in 2003 with a telephone soliciting and mass-mailing campaign, Simpson said.
Library officials announced in September that they were canceling construction bids and delaying the project because more money still was needed for the undertaking.
So far, the library has gathered nearly $1.5 million toward the project. In addition, officials expect to borrow about $1 million more.
Still short
That still leaves the library about $800,000 short of what's needed to complete the project.
The library intends to ask the public to help close that gap.
Although a fund-raising effort with area businesses and residents hasn't started, library officials are busy now trying to land funds through other sources, Simpson said.
Nearly $350,000 is being sought through grants and donations from private foundations.
Officials also are researching nearly three dozen other governmental and private foundation funding sources to see which might have programs that the library would be eligible to apply for, Simpson said.
Library officials originally had hoped to start construction in spring 2001, but a lack of funding has repeatedly delayed the effort.
Plans call for constructing a nearly 12,000-square-foot addition on the east and north sides of the original 1897 structure at 303 E. Lincoln Way.
In store
The addition will include more space for books, a garage for the library's bookmobile, a conference room, children's room and reference area.
Also planned is the razing of a nearly 2,000-square-foot addition on the library's north side in the 1960s.
The old addition isn't accessible to people with disabilities, and it has a leaky roof.
Once work begins, it's expected to take a year to 18 months to complete.