Mayor Colleen Mahr, joined by members of the Borough Council, library trustees and others, broke ground today for a new Fanwood Memorial Library, a project in the planning for almost a decade.
The project, currently budgeted at just over $8.2 million, is funded partially by a grant from the NJ Library Construction Bond Act which was made possible by a voter referendum in 2017. Fanwood applied for and was awarded $3.5 million of that money thru a competitive application process. The Borough is funding the remainder.
“We have spent a lot of time and energy focusing on the transformation of our downtown and now it’s time to focus our resources on our public buildings,” said Mayor Mahr. “This is the first, brand new public building in close to 50 years. Today we acknowledge that our library plays a critical role in promoting education and knowledge and will serve as an important community hub benefitting everyone.”
The current timetable calls for construction to be completed in the spring of 2024. In the meantime, library operations continue at the historic Fanwood train station.
The new library will replace a building that stood at the same spot at North Avenue and Tillotson Road for 71 years and suffered from significant infrastructure issues. It was also not compliant with ADA regulations. It was demolished earlier this year.
NJ State Librarian Jennifer Nelson
Among those attending the groundbreaking were NJ State Librarian Jennifer Nelson, Fanwood Council president Jeff Banks, Council members Anthony Carter and Gina Berry, library director Dan Weiss, library trustee president Ann Minski and Friends of the Library president Carol Campbell.
M&M Construction of Cranford is the general contractor and Epic Management of Piscataway is the construction manager.
