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Did you know?
There is no charge or fee to get your own Library card!
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| Vision 300 |
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Planning for the Future with
VISION 300
Developing, designing and implementing a strategic plan for the Library's 300
years of service and into the future.
Our goals include:
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Provide easer access into the building
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Develop a children's resource center
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Provide a larger variety of materials
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Expand the homework learning center
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Obtain more computer workstations
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Enlarge our activity/meeting rooms
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Beautify the library grounds
There are three ways to support this VISION:
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Send a tax-deductible donation.
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Support the Children's Outreach through the United Way #12702
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New Page 1
Darby
library faces uphill climb
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By
ANTHONY J. SANFILIPPO and WILLIAM BENDER asanfilippo@delcotimes.com
wbender@delcotimes.com Last year, Sue Eshbach requested nearly $440,000
from Delaware County Council to renovate the Darby Free Library. She was
denied. This year, she reduced her Community Development Block Grant
proposal to $26,400, hoping to build a ramp that would at least provide
handicap access to the first floor of the building.
Again
Eshbach, the director of the Darby Free Library on Main Street, was
rebuffed by council.
Now, the oldest continuously operating public library in the country
remains off limits to wheelchair-bound residents who can’t climb its
stairs.
The federal Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990 and enacted
in 1992, requires federal, state and local governments to make public
buildings handicap accessible. The library, however, was exempted from
the act because it existed prior to the incorporation of Darby Borough
and is run by the Darby Free Library Company and its board of directors.
"This library was here before there was a borough --- or even a
country," said Eshbach, who applied for the grant to build a ramp
from the parking lot to the first floor of the library.
"Block grants have been used in Darby to do a lot of wonderful
improvements, including the parking lot of the library, new housing for
the handicapped and the elderly, and a community center. But there’s
nothing being done to help the people access their own public
library."
Some longtime patrons can no longer maneuver the library’s two flights
of stairs, so part-time workers have been delivering books to their
homes. And because the building does not comply with the federal
disabilities act, Eshbach said she has had problems securing other
grants.
The lack of county money, she said, is also hindering money in the form
of a Keystone Grant, which requires matching funds.
"We’re asking county council to get the ball rolling to supply
the money to build the ramp, which is just the very beginning of the
entire project," she said.
The more extensive plan proposed last year was drafted by the Community
Design Collaborative of Philadelphia and would make the entire building
handicap accessible through massive renovation and the installation of
an elevator.
"I’ll pledge to donate money from my 2005 budget if council will
do the right thing for this library," announced Anthony DiTomaso,
government and community relations director for Comcast Cable
Communications, Inc. at last week’s county council public meeting.
"This is an historical treasure in Delaware County that should not
be neglected."
County Executive Director Marianne Grace said the library’s request
was given the proper consideration, but just didn’t make the funding
cut.
This year, council had about $5 million in CDBG money to distribute but
received grant requests for four times that amount.
"Over the past several years significant dollars have gone to Darby
Borough. When considering each request, council tries to be equitable
with the entire county and spread the money around," Grace said.
Eshbach made an impassioned plea to council after which Council Chairman
Tim Murtaugh told her that "she made a good case," for the
library.
"Most of the time we recapture some of those CDBG funds because it
turns out costs were lower than originally anticipated," Grace
said. "When we do, council will re-evaluate all eligible projects
and make new decisions.
"You just can’t do everything. The funding is limited. Council
prioritizes and looks at everything based on the funding that is
available. We want to revitalize all our communities, not just the same
ones over and over."
Darby Borough has received more than $3 million in CDBG funding alone in
the past 10 years.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development allocates the
CDBG money to the county, which then decides which municipalities and
organizations will be funded. Three county municipalities -- Chester
City, Upper Darby and Haverford -- receive their allocations directly
from HUD and are not included in the county program.
Council awards the CDBG money to projects designed to assist low- and
moderate-income people or to fund historic preservation efforts. It can
fund any project it chooses, as long as the project meets federal
guidelines.
Municipalities and non-profit groups interested in a piece of the
funding submit applications to the Delaware County Planning Department,
whose personnel review the applications and make recommendations. The
final decision rests with county council.
A Darby Borough library tax generates money to help fund its daily
operations, but not capital projects such as the handicap ramp,
according to borough manager Joseph Possenti Jr. The borough has
earmarked $19,214 for the library this year, but that number will be
adjusted once taxes are collected, Possenti said.
"We would give more if we could," said Possenti, who oversaw
this year’s bare-bones borough budget.
Founded in March 1743 by a group of 29 townsmen, the Darby Free Library
has moved three times, but remained in continuous operation. Its first
elected librarian, John Pearson, worked with the renowned botanist John
Bartram to purchase the library’s earliest collection of books.
"There is a small number of us in Darby near Philadelphia who have
formed ourselves into a company in order to purchase for our use a small
set of books, with well-grounded expectations of our number increasing
in a little time," read a letter written by John Bonsall that was
recorded in the original Darby Library Company minutes, which remain
intact today.
The first shipment of 45 volumes arrived from London in November 1743 --
43 of which are still on display at the library -- and included Sir
Walter Raleigh’s "The History of the World," John Milton’s
"Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained," and William
Sherlock’s "A Practical Discourse Concerning Death."
In 1866, the company purchased the plot of land at 10th and Main
streets, where the library now sits. The building was completed six
years later at a cost of $8,895.54.
The Darby Free Library now contains over 20,000 volumes of fiction,
non-fiction and reference books, as well as DVDs, and audio and video
tapes.
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| ©The
Daily Times 2004 |
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1998 - 2006
Darby Free Library
