Normally, Easthampton’s library director Katya Schapiro is surrounded by books.
But on a cold, grey afternoon earlier this month, Schapiro was standing in the lobby of the former BankESB building on Main Street surrounded by an altogether different environment: yellow scaffolding, shop vacs, five-gallon buckets, carpet tiles, and vinyl plank flooring. Together with Chuck McCullagh, the Easthampton Public Library’s fundraising officer, she flipped through paperwork and glanced around at the in-progress construction. Light from the large windows filled the space. A massive bank vault stood ajar at the edge of the room.
With an air of excitement, Schapiro announced that the library’s renovation project would be completing the first of many phases and opening to the public at the end of the month.
Last year, BankESB announced it was donating their 52 Main St. building to the library as part of a larger plan to make the library an accessible space for everyone and to keep the library financially solvent. The library operates as a private nonprofit, with funding primarily split between two sources: the library’s endowment and the city, which has traditionally funded the library at lower rates than the average statewide. That lack of city funding led to a fiscal crisis at the library in recent years.
McCullagh and Schapiro have expressed optimism that the project will move forward with financial support from both the city and the private sector. The library did recently miss out on a large grant from the state for the renovations, but a smaller funding cycle set to begin in two years will provide another opportunity.
This first phase of the BankESB building renovation project will open the annex space to the public for community events and auxiliary library functions. While the space will not yet be available for private rentals, community groups, library boards, and committees will be able to use the space. It will accommodate events up to 50 people and will also have a large projector screen. The Public Library Association of Easthampton, the nonprofit that governs and maintains the library, also hopes to use some of their newly acquired outdoor space and parking lot.
The space will also have two accessible bathrooms at the time of the annex opening, with the capacity to add more in later development phases — something the current Easthampton Public Library building on Park Street is lacking.
For now, “just about everything is staying at the old library,” Schapiro said. She said that some offices will be moved into the new building following the completion of the first phase of the renovation project. The long term plan, Schapiro said, will be to move the entire library collection and its historic, archival, and museum collections to the renovated Main Street building. She added that some of the library’s current storage was housed in archival cabinets in the basement.
McCullagh and Schapiro said that the new building has the capacity, once fully renovated, to house the entirety of the library. In addition to the spaces behind the annex, they said there is also a lot of possibility for the downstairs space, including a climate-controlled storage area for the museum collection. There is space outdoors, too, for events like the library’s biannual book sale, as well as operational flexibility during the transition. The building will also be fully electric.
McCullagh was especially optimistic for the improvements to accessibility that this building offers to its patrons and staff. In addition to parking and accessible bathrooms, the building is located in a walkable area close to a dense amount of housing compared to other available buildings the Public Library Association of Easthampton had considered for the project.
In the past, McCullagh has served as the chief financial officer of the Williston Northampton School, retiring from that position in 2023.
“We have an opportunity to design from the ground up and make better use of similar square footage,” McCullagh said. He compared this to the limitations and challenges of maintaining and renovating the old building on Park Street, which was built in 1881 and has an entire downstairs that is inaccessible to those who need an elevator. He said it was financially inefficient to maintain and operate the old building and even harder to adapt.
“It’s an incredible challenge to run that building, this [change] will hopefully allow Katya to focus less on being a building project manager and get to focus more on being a librarian,” he said.
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McCullagh said the cost of phase one of this project was around $600,000. Resealing the roof and some remediation of asbestos glue and adhesives used in the flooring contributed to that number. By the end of the month, McCullagh said he expects to have the next phase priced out, including the cost of installing an elevator.
“We tried to keep the cost contained,” McCullagh said, adding that the Public Library Association of Easthampton was actively trying to raise money through the business community and that they had already received one gift for this phase of the project.
“Greenfield Savings [Bank] already made a contribution pledge to the renovation,” he said. “BankESB, on top of helping provide the new space, has also been supportive financially.”
McCullagh did not provide a precise amount, however, when asked.
According to McCullagh, Sourcepass — an IT service provider that has in recent years acquired at least 11 other IT companies — is “contributing the installation” of wireless access in the building, and that a number of local businesses committed to annual funding gifts to support the library’s operations.
When asked about the overall cost of the project and concerns about financial feasibility in this time of state and federal upheaval as the administration of President Donald Trump looks to gut federal funding across the board, Schapiro and McCullagh were optimistic.
“Federal library funding might dry up, but I don’t think that will affect this project too much,” Schapiro said. ‘I think everyone will be seeing leaner times.”
McCullagh said he is setting his sights on grants and funding from the private sector. “There is support out there,” he said.
McCullagh said the renovation of the former BankESB building includes a high-efficiency energy system in addition to being centrally located and connected into the community and other community projects. These things, he said, lend themselves to funding opportunities across various financial sectors.
“Incredible city support has helped,” Schapiro said. “The City Council and the mayor have been unequivocally supportive.”
This, however, is a new course of action for the city. Historically, up until 2023, the city funded the library to the minimum amount allowed by the state, forcing the library to draw heavily from their endowment at an unsustainable rate. This state funding number allows the libraries to participate in the statewide network and receive additional support and resources.
In 2021, city funds covered only 49% of the library’s operating budget, while the average level of municipal funding for libraries in Massachusetts was 86.3% at that time. That same year, the City Council had to hold a vote to transfer exactly $1 to the library as a budget correction because the originally approved budget miscalculated the minimum required amount by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Multiple city councilors joked about the proceeding.
In 2023, the Public Library Association of Easthampton presented a stark reality during City Council and city finance meetings. At the time, McCullagh told the city that if nothing was done to address the financial relationship between the city and library, “I can guarantee you that the library will be nonexistent in five years.”
“It’s just a financial reality,” he told the Finance Committee at the time. “We just cannot operate the way it is right now.”
After the Public Library Association of Easthampton made its case to city officials to deepen their relationship, Schapiro said the city has stepped up financial support for operational costs, some of which has come from cannabis tax revenue. That has allowed the library association to use its endowment funds more sustainably, she said.
“It’s a two-way street,” Schapiro said. “There has been so much more of an effort for collaborating. I have been making more of an effort. It takes mutual outreach and making sure we are fully participating in those conversations.”
Schapiro said this is another way in which the library also lends itself to fiscal sustainability by ensuring the Public Library Association of Easthampton does not duplicate work already being done by other departments or groups in the city. One such example is “makers spaces,” which is a focus of other city groups including the Easthampton City Arts.
Historically, the library’s situation can’t be blamed on any one person, McCullagh said. “The mayor and the City Council have been great partners and changed the direction of where the library was going.”
The city allocated $510,000 from cannabis revenue to the Public Library Association of Easthampton last fiscal year, which the nonprofit is using at a rate of roughly $100,000 over the next five to six years, McCullagh told The Shoestring in an email. Used in this way, it adds more than 15% to the library’s overall annual budget for those years.
According to the library’s website, which also contains information about the plans for the new building, the city funding for this year through July 2025 accounts for 55% of the operational costs.
During past city meetings discussing the library’s financial predicament, Mayor Nicole LaChapelle had expressed both support for the library and concern about the Public Library Association of Easthampton’s funding proposal, noting that it would depend on annual successful budget votes through the City Council and sitting mayor. LaChapelle’s term ends this November, and the City Council has been fraught with tension and personal conflicts, resulting in multiple members resigning both this month and in recent years.
LaChapelle did not respond to a request for an interview.
In addition to support from city officials and community partners, McCullagh said “BankESB’s generosity,” the donation of the building, was what launched this project.
The building development group D.A. Sullivan & Sons also played a significant role in the project, Schapiro said, along with Curtis Edgin, the lead architect on the project with the firm Caolo & Bieniek Architects. Ciderhouse Media has also dedicated a portion of their website to fundraising for the library, according to McCullagh.
Despite being denied a significant grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners earlier this year, Schapiro said throughout all the phases of the project the MBLC has contributed planning support and advocacy, consulting, and construction guidelines for Massachusetts libraries. According to Schapiro, the MBLC will have another grant cycle in two years, which will provide another opportunity for funding, and continues to provide other forms of support to the library.
Schapiro said, while it may not be “romantic,” she believes the job of libraries is resource aggregation and to reduce the cost for the most number of people to use the services.
Looking around the annex, Schapiro said the completion of the first phase of renovation and opening the annex “gives us the opportunity to really offer something for all the promising we’ve been making, and show that new things can happen.”
Tommy Lee is a writer, investigative journalist, and audio video producer for community television based in Western Massachusetts.
