Karen Dandurant
GREENLAND The town s voters approved funds to complete the expansion and renovation of Weeks Public Library in Tuesday s election.
The petition warrant article will appropriate $198,000 for the project, after it passed in a 448-280 vote. The $3.6 million-plus project at the more than 120-year-old library broke ground last year. The town s voters approved the additional money against the recommendation of town selectmen and the budget committee.
Randy Bunnell defeated Frank Catapano for one open seat for the Board of Selectmen, 433-220. Neither candidate was an incumbent.
On the Planning Board, four people sought to fill three seats. Elected were incumbents Catherine Mederios (416 votes) and John McDevitt (453) and board alternate Robert Dion (337). They defeated incumbent Frank Catapano (269).
GREENLAND The Friends of the Weeks Public Library in Greenland received a fundraising boost this week with a $5,000 “A Community Thrives” grant from the Gannett Foundation. Gannett is the parent company of Seacoast Media Group, publishers of the Portsmouth Herald, Foster’s Daily Democrat, Seacoastonline and weekly papers in Maine and New Hampshire.
In 2018, voters in Greenland approved $3.6 million to upgrade the 122-year-old Weeks Library building, which was state of the art when it opened in 1898 but had grown so cramped that Friends secretary Stuart Bauder joked, “You had to go outside to change your mind.”
Additionally, some Greenland residents were unable to access the old building due to physical disabilities. The new building will be 100% ADA compliant, Bauder said.