Jones Library Building Project Financial Status, September 2026: $8.4 Million Still Owed to Town
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Since the last update in August 2026, the Jones Library has made no additional payments to the Town for its share of the building project ($13,822,518). Note that the town Finance Committee will be providing an update to the financials for this project at their next meeting on Tuesday, September 15 at 1p,m.
The amounts paid and owed to the town are shown on the following graph that will be updated and posted regularly in the Indy.
It is unfortunate that Town and Jones Library bean counters are working off two different sets of books.
At yesterday’s Board of Trustees meeting, President Austin Sarat blithely declared that “Capital Campaign efforts have raised $10 million for this project.”
Now we see in Finance Director Sean Mangano’s report that as of August 31, the Town has received only $5.4 million from the Library.
Also at yesterday’s Trustee meeting Marian Walker, President of the Friends of the Jones Library, shared, “We did vote some money — $350,000 — to hire two positions for development. [Friends Development Director] Lisa DeGrace is working on the description of those positions and she will be posting them ASAP.”
It is not clear why a library fundraiser needs to earn four times what a paraeducator makes, but this may at least help explain why the library’s building project debt is being paid off so slowly.
This seems like an issue that is easily solved. The Town has to approve every step of this project through occupancy. If the trustees can’t pay their portion of the project then the Town needs to do something to ensure that the funds are paid as promised, on time. In the same manner that residents are required to pay taxes, utilities, etc., on time, or face penalties. Promises are nice, until the bill comes due. “Not a penny more…”, I feel like I have heard that somewhere. The longer the Trustees sit on 8 million dollars the more interest they earn.