Porter Memorial Library Director Nicole Daviau updates residents on expansion plans.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
BLANDFORD — At an informational meeting on Sept. 20, the Porter Memorial Library building committee presented the plans for the library’s expansion which are nearing completion.
Library Director Nicole Daviau said the plans are between the conceptual and schematic phases for the new library, which will be four times its original size while maintaining its 1892 charm.
The library received a Small Libraries in Networks Grant of $125,000 in October 2024 from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, after the town voted unanimously at a Special Town Meeting that spring to authorize a local match for the funds. The grant is for planning and architectural design for library expansion.
Since receiving the grant, Daviau said the library has formed a building committee charged with representing the community, and working together with the director, library trustees and an independent consultant, helping to create the building plan, which is due to the MBLA in its final form by February 2026.
Daviau said the Sept. 20 meeting was to make sure the community is informed about the process and the planning and design stage, before scheduling a vote to approve moving forward into the construction phase. “We are guaranteed to receive funding that will cover 75% of eligible construction costs,” she said.
The town will be responsible for the furniture, fixtures, computers, light fixtures and a small percentage of the overall costs. She said they will be reusing the shelving and as much as they can else currently in the library. “We’re not letting anything go to waste,” she added.
Daviau was excited to describe some of the features of the new library, which she said will bring the library back to its original intended use, including a screened-in reading porch to the left of the front entrance on Route 23. The original library structure and shelving will be restored in a reading room area, and the shelving on casters will be used in the new non-fiction area. The existing children’s room will have an art gallery wall and cafe tables with a coffee and tea station.
“Truly this plan for the building makes the best use of the space that we have and the space that we’re going to have to bring the community together with the materials they want, and allow us the programming we’ve been trying to do without impeding other library services,” Daviau said.
The existing library is not ADA-accessible nor up to the fire code. She said even without the grant, the town would have needed to remedy the building. The plans include an ADA accessible entrance and bathroom. “We’re so lucky this grant came along at just the right time,” she said.
Daviau said from Route 23, the only visual difference to the library will be the porch on the left side of the front entrance, which was recreated in the plans from the original historic reading porch. The majority of the expansion will be off the back of the building, which will be shaped like an “L” and expanded into the rear of the parking area, which will also be redesigned.
“We have stakes up in the ground right now showing the corners,” Daviau said.
Although the vote to go forward with the library expansion hasn’t been scheduled yet, she said the committee hopes to have the draft plans that have been submitted to the MLBC back in order to vote in early November.
The anticipated timetable for construction will be to start with a groundbreaking in June of 2026 — at which time the library will be moving into a yet-to-be-determined home in Town Hall. Daviau said the hope is to be moving back into the completed library in November of 2027.
“We’ve had amazing community support. It’s something that has brought our community together, which is especially important when a lot of things in Blandford are divisive. This is a project that has something in it for everybody, even if you don’t love to read,” she said, emphasizing the tech bar, adult quiet reading room and community meeting room.
“This has something in it for every person in Blandford. It’s supposed to be a building that brings people together. That’s what makes it so special,” Daviau said.
