The Perham Area Public Library has been awarded a state grant to help pay for an extensive mold abatement project, and if all goes well, the work could be done as early as this summer.
A grant in the amount of $257,000 has been awarded to the library by the State Legislature. Funds will come from the Minnesota Department of Education Library Construction Grant Program.
The grant requires a 50 percent match from the city; $106,000 of that will come from a private, personal donation, $40,000 from a capital reserve account, and the rest from city enterprise funds (namely, revenues from the municipal liquor store).
On Monday, city councilors approved a resolution allowing the city to move forward with acceptance of the grant money. City Manager Kelcey Klemm said the grant agreement had already been written, and the funding was “almost a done deal.
As soon as a few final papers are signed and sent back to Perham, he said, city leaders will give BHH Architects the go-ahead to finalize a renovation plan for the library. BHH was previously approved to do the work.
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After that, there will be a call for bids for the project. Depending on how the bidding process goes, construction could start by this summer.
It was revealed last November that water has been leaking through the library’s stone masonry exterior for years, leading to what is now floor-to-ceiling mold growth and wood degradation behind the insulation. Fixing it will cost an estimated $500,000.
The grant award is largely due to the work of Klemm and Library Director Susan Heusser-Ladwig, who traveled to St. Paul last March to testify about the library’s mold problem and present the city’s case for state funding to help correct it.
