Lehighton Borough was the scene of a doubleheader dedication on Sunday.

After the dedication at the upper park in the borough, all the borough’s officials reassembled at the Lehighton Memorial Library on North Street for the official dedication of the new 1,400-square-foot addition built onto the back of the library.

The front entrance was redesigned to include a ramp for easier access, a new open room with tables and chairs, a community room which will be used for library programs and by community groups and individuals for meetings, classes and other functions. There are also new ADA-compliant restrooms.

The addition was built with the help of a matching grant from the Keystone Recreation, Park, and Conservation Fund through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries. The matching funds were donated by grants, donations from community groups, bequests and gifts from local families, including the Julius & Katheryn Hommer Foundation as well as Elaine and Roger Diehl.

Melissa Hawk, library director, offered thanks.

“Many supported this project. Some are donors who sent in a contribution every year, some wrote letters to support the Keystone grant application, some donated your time and effort to put the finishing touches on this bright and happy space ... a lot of people up on ladders,” she said. “We thank you so much for helping us complete this project and for supporting the important work that we do in the community.

“The last time we gathered here like this was in February 2019, when we held the groundbreaking,” Hawk explained. “Since that time, we faced a lot of challenges and found new ways to cope with new circumstances. During that time, the library staff and board worked diligently to adapt our services and provide new ways to help the community.”

Members of the Lehighton Memorial Library Board and staff were on hand, as were Thomas Caffrey, Northeast Regional Director from Gov. Tom Wolf’s office; Grant Hunsicker, borough council President; Ryan Saunders, and borough council President pro tem.

Timm Berger, district office manager for state Rep. Doyle Heffley, also offered his thoughts.

“I would like to thank everyone who did great work in this expansion of the library. I know it helped me through my years of school, when I could get Books on Tape and all that; it helped me out. I know everybody appreciates the hard work everyone has done, and we are proud to be part of the team.”

The library will be returning to traditional services in the spring of 2022, with plans to offer traditional programs and will be adding new ones.

Hawk finished her remarks by reading a paragraph from an original program from the 1966 dedication: “Between the lines of this very brief account, you can detect the hours of planning, the days and nights of frustration and anxiety, the joys of realization. To those that come after us, we say, ‘We have made a beginning. Please nurture our dream.’”

The dedication was completed with the cutting of the ribbon, done by local child, Tyson Perkins.

For more information on the library, visit www.LehightonLibrary.com.