It’s official: Lewes Public Library open

Over the last year, visitors to the Lewes Public Library witnessed a new, larger building rising from the ground across the railroad tracks to east. The steel beams that serve as the skeleton of the 28,500-square-foot building were eventually covered up with walls and a roof. And as the new library began to take shape, anticipation began to swell.

Those eagerly awaiting the new building were officially welcomed June 25. Gov. Jack Markell along with state, local and library officials cut the ribbon before a swarm of guests took their first steps into the new library.

“A lot of hard work has been done by the staff and volunteers,” said Beckie Healey, president of the library's board of commissioners. “This building is going to work just as we had hoped and expected.”

It started with an idea, and Markell fondly remembers meeting with then-Mayor Jim Ford and Dennis Forney, capital campaign chairman, in the very early stages.

“It seems like any time the leadership in Lewes has a vision for what they want to get done, they do it,” Markell said. “It's not that they start with their own ideas. They listen carefully to what the community wants, and they work with the community to figure it out.”

The $11.2 million price tag was a public-private partnership that saw the state contribute $5.5 million, matched by more than 600 individual donors. Some major donations also came from the Ma-Ran Foundation, Longwood Foundation, Welfare Foundation and Crystal Trust.

The new library offers three, different-size meeting rooms available for community use, a new young-adult room that shares a program room with the children’s room, four tutor/study rooms, 43 computers for public use, a computer training room for up to 12 users, a quiet room and expanded administrative space for staff. There also is a Friends of the Library store called Just Between Friends that sells books and literacy-related items.

Markell lauded the library for building a new facility to accommodate future growth.

“My guess is that you’re going to be bursting at the seams,” he said. “Think about all the people moving into Sussex County and Lewes.”

Mayor Ted Becker said the project started as a far-fetched idea, but through the community's commitment of time and energy, that idea has become reality.

“This is another giant step in the transformation of this fine community,” he said. “This community has once again demonstrated that we are committed to the improvement of life for everyone. It is that can-do spirit that earned Lewes the right to claim the First Town in the First State.”