In December of 2002, the Mercersburg Library Association, Inc. received a gift from the Mercersburg Development Corporation of $120,000 dollars to be used as seed money and matching funds to attract additional giving for the purpose of constructing a much needed addition to the Fendrick Library.
The Board of the Mercersburg Library Association created a Building Fund account and began plans for a fund raising effort to raise the necessary additional funds for the project. The Board felt that it would best serve the library if it did not incur debt for the project but raised the funds necessary before beginning the project. Preliminary projections at that time suggested that the addition would cost $450,000 dollars. The Board felt that an additional $300,000 dollars would need to be raised for an endowment to help support the new building and additonal staff.
The Building Fund grew slowly but steadily until December of 2007. At that time the Building Fund received a gift from Mr. and Mrs. Gerry Lenfest in memory of Thomas Steiger Sr. of Mercersburg in the amount of $400,000 dollars. This gift brought the Building Fund very close to the goal of $750,000 that had been set in 2002. At this time it was decided to begin the building addition project. Tippetts/Weaver Architects of Lancaster were hired to design the addition and Rockwell Construction of Mercersburg was retained as the General Contractor.
The designs are in the final stages. We have found that this project, like everything else, has gone up drastically in price from 2002 to today. It is estimated that the cost of construction will require all $750,000 or more, leaving nothing for the endowment. The Board of Directors of the Mercersburg Library Association believes that we must proceed with the project and continue with additional fundraising efforts.
We thank all those in the community for their continuing support of the library and this project and hope that we can count on you in the future. This web site will give project updates. We hope to break ground in the near future.
