Astoria Public Library Granted Funds For Renovation

The Astoria Public Library Foundation, which is the foundation that is responsible for raising money for the Astoria Oregon Public Library, has been awarded a grant of $500,000 which is to go towards the current Astoria Oregon Public Library renovation project. 

The grant is being awarded by the National Endowment for Humanities, an independent federal agency of the U.S. government that was established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965. 

Last year, Astoria’s City Council voted to support a full renovation of the library, with the provision that the library foundation needed to raise another $5 million to cover the remaining costs.  

The grant requires the foundation to raise at least $1.5 million in matching funds from local sources over the span of five years. 

Since 2014, the foundation has only raised about $100,000 after expenses, along with $80,000 in pledged funds. 

The project total for the much-needed renovation is close to 7 million dollars, so this grant will be a serious helo towards accomplishing that aim.

Here’s what the renovation will consist of: 

• The renovation will modernize the building on 10th street with larger windows as well as spaces for meetings and reading corners as well as spaces for teens and families.
• Opening public access to the basement which would include an extended Flag Room for meetings
• The renovation would also include a training kitchen, gallery, media lab as well as collaboration and archival areas.

The city of Astoria, Oregon has set aside $750,000 in carbon sequestration credits to support this renovation along with an additional $900,000 from a memorial fund dedicated to former Astoria Mayor, W.C Logan. The newly renovated library will be named after the former mayor. 

Current Astoria Mayor, Bruce Jones had this to say about the grant being awarded to the Astoria Public Library Foundation: “This significant federal award toward the transformation of our 52-year-old library into a highly functional space is a huge step forward, he federal investment in our community validates our plan to provide Astorians a state of the art library that will meet the community’s needs for another 50 years.”

The foundation will work together with city employees to identify possible sources to raise the remaining funds from, within the time frame laid out by the National Endowment for Humanities.