Bourne library cupola repairs: Should the town fix the iconic feature sooner or later?
BOURNE — The distinctive cupola atop Bourne Public Library with its whaleship weathervane is an instantly recognizable icon - and it needs repairs again.
Cupola funding remains a sensitive if not unsettling point as town officials and the elected board of library trustees consider the overall library future in an early 1920s redbrick elementary school the district closed in the 1980s.
Library trustees may ask for Community Preservation Act funds at a fall town meeting, rather than the originally planned May 6 town meeting, at the request of Town Administrator Marlene McCollem and Assistant Town Manager Liz Hartsgrove.
Some library trustees say the cupola is mostly weather-tight and that water infiltrates the 99-year-old weathered building when rain is swept by winds but only out of certain directions. They say fixes need not be imminent. Others, however, say they cannot imagine the cupola is water-tight at all.
The sentiment now is that cupola funds would be premature and should not be sought until a complete library facilities study is undertaken and a report submitted to trustees. Members suggest the report could be consequential as to the library's future.
Trustees on March 28 said they have long assumed any significant upgrades would wait until a new fire station south of the canal is financed. However, some support is needed to maintain a library with deteriorating features until its future can be determined, trustees said.
How much does it cost to restore the Bourne Public Library cupola?
CPA historic resources account records show $112,000 spent on cupola/roof repairs to date, with an unexpended balance of $95,000 in a 2021 town meeting article. And Gale Associates reports $123,160 is needed for further fixes still to be determined.
Trustees agree future work can be carried out atop the library and that the cupola would not have to be taken down similar to a 2014 project that did not ultimately stop leaks, according to minutes of former trustee meetings.
“We do not get into how the CPA funds are administered,” CPA Committee Chair Barry Johnson noted in a March 29 email. “We’re the funding source, and then implementation is left to the town administration to oversee the project.”
Johnson, in a separate area, has compiled a list of unexpended CPA balances involving approved appropriations and on April 1, sent it to finance committee review.
He said the list includes $60,000 for front door replacement at the library. If the project is not undertaken and completed, he added, the funds return to the CPA historic resources account.
Bourne Public Library building history stretches to 100 years in 2025
The library over three decades has suffered from benign municipal neglect with capital spending priorities always shifting to public safety needs, new schools and a new public works complex. The library sits in quiet Bourne village in a building that does not vie for significant structure status.
A new library has been the dream of BPL trustees stretching back two decades. It has been a rough road trip of watching and waiting through plans, architectural renderings and futuristic drawings. The end result: trustee frustration and changes in library science as well as patron demands. And plans back on the shelf.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Should Bourne spend on cupola repairs at the library? What we know.
