Berlin Library still looking for $1.3M

The wind whipped around the dozen or so vendors tables lined up just outside downtown Berlin, but rain never materialized Saturday afternoon when several hundred gathered at the site of the new $4.5 million Worcester County Library.

For now, the space is hardly more than an open field next to the Waystead Inn on Harrison Avenue, but by next year work could begin on the new state-of-the-art facility, which would include enhanced meeting spaces, more computers and better access to the internet, as well as children and teen reading areas.

Whether or when shovels go into the ground, however, will largely depend on whether the state approves a $1 million grant in its next fiscal year budget.

The Worcester County Library Foundation already received $2 million from the county, $430,000 of which went to land acquisition, and $1 million from the state.

More