5 public libraries in Allegheny County to receive $3.8 million from 1st ever RAD grant

Five public libraries will receive $3.8 million in funding through the first-ever Transformative Community Library Fund grants from Allegheny Regional Asset District (RAD).

“We know today’s libraries go well beyond the bookstacks,” said Daniel J. Griffin, RAD board chair in a news release. “A modern library is a community center, a senior center, a technology center, a resume center, and much more. These grants will ensure all of Allegheny County’s libraries are equipped to serve everyone.”

RAD is the largest single funder of libraries in Allegheny County. The latest grants will supplement that annual funding.

The libraries that will receive this first round of transformative grants are:

∗ Braddock Carnegie Library – $1,250,000 toward repair and reconstruction of the exterior masonry and vestibule in America’s first Carnegie Library

∗ Carnegie Free Library of Swissvale – $800,000 toward a major capital project to make the library fully accessible for the first time

∗ Carnegie Library of McKeesport – $750,000 as a part of a phased-in renovation to turn the uppermost floor from storage space to public space for community groups

∗ Clairton Public Library – $500,000 to help move the library to new, purpose-built space on the ground floor of the newly-renovated Clairton Inn Apartments

∗ Carnegie Library of Homestead – $500,000 toward a major capital project to make the historic library building more accessible and increase programming space

More information is available here.

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