Winthrop town councilors on Monday agreed to hire a West Gardiner company to make room to expand the town’s C.M. Bailey Public Library.
The council approved a contract with McGee construction to demolish the Masonic hall. The demolition of the town-owned hall will make room to expand the next-door library, which is at the corner of Bowdoin and Summer streets. The contract with McGee is for $29,000, Winthrop Town Council Chairman Kevin Cookson said. Demolition is expected to begin by the end of the month.
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“Steve McGee has done work in the town before, and he’s usually pretty quick,” Cookson said.
The plan is to tear down the Masonic building to expand the library, which was designed by Maine architect John Calvin Stevens and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Masonic building has been empty for some time, and reusable materials including woodwork and doorknobs have been stored so they can be incorporated into the addition. The two-story addition, which will be built on the Masonic Hall property, will be home to adult services and children’s libraries. The current adult services space will be divided between a teen area and a reading room. The basement, currently occupied by the children’s library, will be used for storage and staff offices.
A fundraiser for the $1.35 million project began two years ago.
Cookson said the expansion project probably will go out to bid by early summer.
Craig Crosby — 621-5642 ccrosby@centralmaine.com Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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