The Palmerton Area Library has received $600,000 in grants to assist with water damage repairs and restoration to its century-old building.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, and state Sen. David Argall, R-Carbon/Schuylkill/Luzerne, announced Wednesday that the Palmerton Area Library is receiving the funding to help with water damage repairs and restoration to its building.

“I’m pleased to have helped secure this significant amount of funding,” Heffley said. “Libraries provide essential services to residents of all ages. The Palmerton Area Library is historic, and this funding will ensure the building gets the repairs it needs to remain safe and accessible for everyone who relies on it.”

“As the son of a librarian, I was pleased to help secure this highly competitive funding for the Palmerton Library,” Argall said. “This investment will breathe new life into a historic building and provide valuable opportunities for residents for years to come.”

The library was awarded the funding through the Keystone Grant for Public Library Facilities program.

The program, which is administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries, supports projects that improve library infrastructure, including upgrades for accessibility, energy efficiency and essential building systems, as well as renovations and expansions of public spaces.

Christine DeSousa, library director, said the funding is a huge help.

“This will finish our fundraising and grant writing cycle for the restoration project,” DeSousa said. “With all of the money we have brought in, there’s a 98% certainty we’ll be able to finish the restoration project without asking our community for too much more funding for the building project.”

DeSousa said they are only done with part of the planning phase, and added they will be putting bid packages out soon for the first phase of restoration.

“We are very strongly hoping to start the restoration work in the fall, and then continue into next year,” she said. “We don’t have a timeline just yet when it will be finished, but we are excited that we have everything in place to complete our restoration project.”

In December, the library received a $468,000 grant to repair masonry and replace windows as part of its ongoing restoration project.

At that time, DeSousa said that the cost of the restoration project was estimated between $1.3 million to $1.4 million.

In May, the library received a $100,000 grant through the Monroe County Contiguous Local Share Account for library renovations.

Those funds will be used to repair the deteriorating facade of the library to prevent water damage.

DeSousa said the estimation for getting the masonry work done to the outside of the building remains at just over $600,000 (work that has yet to be done).”

She added that the $100,000 grant that was received will likely go toward that part of the larger building restoration project.

DeSousa said that in 2024, the library had over 30,000 users.

Phase 1 of the restoration project, the portion of the west wall, has been completed, and cost about $75,700.

In 2023 board members addressed borough council.

Jack Woginrich, treasurer for Palmerton Area Library, told council that the library had been putting a “Band-Aid” on building damage for roughly the last decade, spending about $100,000.

The parapet top stone was slated for removal, and a water diversion system installed that will channel the rainwater from dripping down the parapet wall to the roof membrane and then to the drain.

Also, the stones on the outside of the building would be cleaned and restored, plus the silicone joint compound would be removed and replaced with a sand-based grout that will breathe and release water instead of sealing it in.