Journal News
Mount Kisco library seeking donations
By Sean Gorman
(Original publication: January 16, 2006)

MOUNT KISCO — A nonprofit group hopes to raise at least $1 million over the next two years to help furnish the new Mount Kisco Public Library.

The Mount Kisco Library Foundation plans to use the money to help pay for items like chairs, bookshelves, carpeting, computers and other furnishings for the facility, which will be built on the same site as the current library at 100 Main St.

Voters in November approved borrowing $8 million to tear down the cramped old library and re-build it as a two-story, 21,500-square-foot facility.

"We think the Mount Kisco library is a worthy cause," foundation President Jeanine Meyer said. "(Mount Kisco) has a wide variety of people in it. They all use the library. We serve all ages. We serve all types of people. We serve them all year-round."

The foundation has raised about $125,000, including a $10,000 donation it recently received from Mahopac National Bank. It is seeking money from local residents, businesses and national organizations, Meyer said.

Work on a new library could start in the summer, village Trustee George Griffin said.

During construction, which Griffin said could take about one year, the library would have to relocate to temporary quarters. He said the village was looking at some temporary sites, but hadn't decided on a location.

"We passed a resolution for an $8 million library, and it's going to be very difficult to construct it for that," Griffin said. "We're going to have to keep a tight belt. ... The project has to come in for the $8 million. It can't go over that."