On November 6, the Rockport Select Board asks your help in building a new library for the town.  For the past six months a team of local architects, engineers, builders, and residents has worked to develop a plan for our library that is appropriately sized and priced for our community. 

On Election Day the townspeople will be asked to vote on two questions regarding the library:

Article 2 will ask the people to approve the library design, allow the select board to formally accept donations for the library, and allow the select board to take out a bond for $1.5 million once they are confident that the private fundraising goal is attainable.

This $1.5 million is the only amount the public will be asked to cover. 

The remaining $2 million will be raised privately by the Rockport Library Foundation. 

Remarkably, more than $1 million has already been pledged by generous members of our community, and this has been accomplished in just two months of “quiet” fundraising. 

In order to help ensure that we have an accurate price for the building, the select board commissioned three builders to provide cost estimates. These all came in within $100,000 of each other. The town’s representative then did their own estimate, and this also fell within the range of the three builders. This provides a high level of confidence in our budget numbers.

Article 3 on the ballot will allow the Select Board to obtain a “construction loan” if necessary, during the construction phase. 

This would be a temporary “bridge” because the construction will take one year but the donations will come in over three years.  This loan may never be needed, depending on the interest earned from the bond money, but in any event, even if this bridge loan is necessary, it will be paid off through the donations we receive.

In summary, many townspeople have worked hard to overcome obstacles we have faced in the past to come up with a plan and a design that we feel is our best chance of having a library the entire town can be proud of and, one that we can afford.

Please vote yes on Articles 2 and 3

The Rockport Select Board (Debra Hall, Ken McKinley, Jeff Hamilton, Mark Kelley, Douglas Cole)