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WILTON — A Northern Border Regional Commission grant for $157,484 recently awarded to the town will help the Western Maine Play Museum finish renovations sooner than expected.
The museum’s portion of the award to the town, which was announced Aug. 4, helps to cap off a successful summer of fund raising for the Main Street museum project.
In June, the museum reached an important milestone, the $350,000 needed to get a $150,000 matching grant from the Sandy River Charitable Foundation, museum officials announced. The total of $500,000 is the initial construction goal, “so it was an important symbol for supporters even though it no longer represented the true cost of updating their building,” museum officials said in an Aug. 8 news release.
Because of cost overruns, the new reconstruction goal is closer to $530,000 and doesn’t include completing the attached carriage house, which is slated for phase two of the project.
Much of the cost overruns are because of fire safety requirements including a sprinkler system and an addition to house a wheelchair lift and an up-to-code stairwell, the release said. “The good news is that with these improvements, the building will be completely modernized, accessible, and safe for all of its visitors.”
The town also was awarded a state facade grant in July, and the museum was an active participant in seeking the $150,000, which will be divided among several Main Street businesses. The museum gets $30,000 of the facade money, which will cover the reconstruction gap. To get the money, the museum must make $60,000 worth of improvements to the façade. Planned improvements include ramps, exterior doors, lighting, signs, courtyard masonry and more.
The Northern Border grant awarded the town Aug. 4 had been written by members of the museum’s board of directors and will help upgrade the Main Street water connection from residential to commercial, allow for a sprinkler system and finish the interior of the carriage house.
The grant will be managed by the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, and requires the museum to match the funds. The work means phase two work can be done immediately, and that the museum will open with the full 6,000 square feet of play/learning space that organizers had initially planned for. The carriage house will house the museum’s largest exhibit space with more than 1,000 square feet for a child-sized play village with restaurant, grocery store, auto mechanic, theater and more.
Details can be found at www.westernmaineplay.org.
