Library Jump Start

Edgartown prides itself on a long and well-earned reputation as a town of fiscal expediency with no infighting. But the story of the Edgartown Public Library expansion has been the exception to the rule in this town of white clapboard whaling captain’s homes, rose-covered fences and, in the middle of it all, the Carnegie building, a beautiful red brick structure that houses the town library on South Water street.

The Carnegie building needs renovation work and the library needs more space.

But a plan to meet those two needs has been a study in dissonance and confusion. First came the purchase of the Warren House, a South Water street home adjacent to the library, five years ago, for three and a half million dollars. Library trustees were excited at the prospect of buying a building that could be renovated into an annex for the library. It was a perfect solution, voters were told at a town meeting: buy the Warren House, and the rest of the money needed for the library project will be raised through a private foundation. No more money will be needed from the town.

Voters bought the sales pitch, despite the fact that there was no clear plan on the table for the project.

Today the Warren House sits in a state of crumbling disuse and the library project, after a series of fits and starts and dreams of raising millions of dollars that were never realized, is back on the drawing board.

It is a fresh start for the town, led by a building committee that is examining the possible conversion of the old Edgartown School into a new town library. An architect has been engaged, and on October Fourth drawings and cost estimates will be presented for two possible scenarios: renovating the Carnegie building and Warren House into a library campus, considerably scaled down from the plan envisioned at the outset, and converting the old school into a new library. Public participation is a key part of the process at this juncture as the committee prepares its recommendation for the selectmen.

Equally important, town leaders, who have been quietly at odds with each other over the library project from the beginning, must now build consensus and find common ground. Part of the public confusion over the library project has been a lack of leadership and clear communication as the town attempted to pursue a public-private partnership with the library foundation. At times it has been unclear who is leading the project — the town or the foundation? The answer without question should be the town; this is a public library, whose budget is paid by taxpayers. The foundation plays a supporting role in raising private money to assist with the project.

It is time for the Edgartown selectmen to take a strong lead and guide their town down the path to a rebuilt library that will serve the next generation and beyond.