Published: December 22, 2022
$3.9 Million for Patten Library Secured by Senator Collins in Funding Bill
Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a senior member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, announced that she secured $3,900,000 for the Friends of Veterans’ Memorial Library to build a new library for Patten in the Fiscal Year 2023 Agriculture appropriations bill.
The omnibus funding package passed the Senate by a vote of 68-29. It will now be passed by the House before heading to the President’s desk to be signed into law.
“The Friends of Veterans’ Memorial Library are spearheading a tremendous project to reimagine the town’s library to serve the needs of Patten and the surrounding region in the 21st century. By building on the library’s core function as a book lender, offering computer literacy and workforce development programs, and serving residents and visitors of all ages, this project will help strengthen and grow the community,” said Senator Collins.
The funding will support the efforts by the Friends of Veterans’ Memorial Library to build a new library for the Town of Patten and surrounding residents, replacing the Veterans’ Memorial Library that was built in 1928.
The building that previously housed Patten’s Veterans’ Memorial Library was closed in 2020, and the library has since been reopened in a temporary space at the Lumbermen’s Museum. Despite the current space limitation, the library provides National Digital Equity courses and trains volunteers through Educate Maine and Maine Math Science Alliance to offer coding as an after-school and/or summer program. In addition, the library established an electronic library card system.
The Friends have made significant progress toward building a larger, permanent home for the library to better serve the community. The new facility will provide more computer workshops for all age groups while also offering outdoor equipment such as mountain bikes, skies, snowshoes, etc., to community members as well as to tourists. Additionally, the Friends hope that the new facility can host small nutrition/cooking classes to youth to teach healthy habits.
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Students at Katahdin Elementary School had a Festival of Trees event at school over the
Christmas holiday. Local businesses donated decorated trees to KES and tickets were sold to
the public as a school fundraiser. Tickets were one dollar each, and students sold seven
hundred (700) tickets.
A local citizen was kind enough to donate $1 for every ticket that was sold which raised $700;
this same citizen added $300 to make the total amount raised to $1,000. Then this person gave
the $1,000 to the building fund for the new library and community center in Patten.
The Friends of Veterans’ Memorial Library are so very excited to accept this generous donation
and for the involvement of the students at Katahdin Elementary School. It was a wonderful
opportunity for students to show their support for a project that will provide the region with a
children’s room, a teen space, and a maker space where they can come to build things and
explore their creativity. The building will also be a library along with serving as a welcoming
center for the region and having a large community space that will once more provide Patten
and the region to have everything from yoga classes to a craft show to a place for class reunions
as it will have a kitchen for a caterer to prepare food or a group can use for an After School
Program on making nutritious snacks. The opportunities are numerous, and we look forward to
being able to being ground work on the project in 2026.
Thank you once again to the students and the anonymous donor.