Marblehead Voters Will Get Say On Abbot Library Renovation

MARBLEHEAD, MA —The first major renovation in more than 30 years at the Abbot Public Library will be up for a townwide vote next month after Marblehead town meeting members approved the override article Monday night.

The $9.5 million project includes $1 million paid through the Friends of the Abbot Library with residents now being asked to pick up the tab for the other $8.5 million.

Renovation proponents argue in the renovation proposal that "short-term fixes are no longer adequate to sustain our facility" and that major upgrades are needed to the library so that it "will continue to be an asset and not a liability to the town."

The project design is also aimed at making the space more efficient, more welcoming and "more able to meet the demands of the 21st century."

The library article was one of 49 on the original warrant for Monday's town meeting held at the Our Lady Star of the Sea Community Center parking lot because of coronavirus gathering restrictions.

Most of the articles came and went with quick votes, including the passage of a $103 million town budget and a proposal from the Select Board for a new fire truck that will also now go before voters.

One article that once again failed was a proposed ban on gas-powered leaf-blowing equipment. The article has been brought before town meeting members for the past seven years and come up short each time.

Proponents had hoped that having so many people home during the yearlong coronavirus health crisis hearing the persistent hum of the leaf blowers, a unified committee promoting the ban and less-restrictive language in the ban — it only was to apply to commercial landscapers from Memorial Day to Labor Day — would pave the way to passage this time around, but that was still not the case.

Town meeting members approved money for $300,000 in storm drainage construction and to remove signs referencing "Black Joe's Pond" near the Steer Swamp Conservation Area, replacing them with signs calling it the "Joe Brown Conservation Area."

Articles forcing residents to shovel the sidewalks in front of their properties after storms failed, as did one calling for staggered elections for the town Board of Selectmen.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)