With the new year comes big changes, and the Lisbon Library plans to do just that. Library director Elizabeth Hoover de Galvez attended Lisbon City Council’s Monday, Dec. 8 meeting to discuss a letter of support from the council, to which the council agreed.
On Thursday, Dec.11, the Lisbon Public Library submitted an application to the American Library Association for a grant that would benefit all users, but would “improve the accessibility of the library” for members of the community with disabilities.
The grant, which is in the amount of $20,000, would help the library to provide a button to open the door at the main entrance, call tools on the elevator so that a person could “call staff to come help” if they or the elevator are stuck on the wrong floor, some additional shelving bins for the picture books that didn’t make it into the browsing bins, and a Meals on Wheels style book delivery service for “homebound patrons.”
If the library does not receive the full amount of $20,000 that they are pursuing, they will then be considered by the American Library Association for a grant amounting to $10,000. Results regarding the receival or denial of the grant will arrive somewhere around April 2026, according to Hoover de Galvez.
Alongside the library’s request for support, the council also heard the status of value engineering work on the rebid of Well Number 5 in Lisbon. Lisbon has faced multiple setbacks with the wells in town, but progress is officially being made.
At the Lisbon City Council meeting Dec. 8, the Well No. 5 rebid was discussed and agreed upon that the city would accept a bid with one condition: the city would take care of building a space for storage, ultimately receiving a $96,000 credit from the lowest bidder, lowering the cost from $849,300 to $753,300.
The city had previously received an American Rescue Plan Act grant from Linn County for $1 million for the infrastructure improvement. Ultimately, however, with additional costs for the building and mobilization, the project bid comes out to approximately $150,000 to $200,000 above the amount provided by Linn County.
The council decided to move forward with getting a contract in place to determine official pricing going forward, as the money from the county is only available through next December.
YTT was also on hand to discuss the progress of the baseball and softball diamonds for the sports complex, with a $357,390 first payment for MBA for the work completed. That work, according to Lisa Burch, includes grading, purchase of materials, installed irrigation system, footings and posts for the dugouts, installation backstop wingpoles. The entire project is estimated to cost $900,000 overall, accounting for one third of the cost of the project completed. Work will continue again in the spring.
As the year ends, Lisbon has begun work on the budget review process. The council heard budget requests from the cemetery, historical preservation, Lisbon History Center and community beautification funds.
The cemetery budget, after some comparison with “everyone in and around us,” according to Brandon Siggins, is being increased to land at an approximate $63,450 projected expenditure.
“We were way low,” Siggins said, when it came to some of Lisbon’s costs for burial at the cemetery. “How we got attention to it was the funeral home told us we were lower than everywhere else.”
Siggins said they reached out to other communities and found a place to keep Lisbon’s charges more in the middle.
As for the historical preservation budget, the amount used in the past year decreased from $2,000 to $1,500.
Going forward into the new year, the history center budget is going to be allocated in two ways. The first portion will include exterior building repair and insurance. The second portion of the history center’s budget that covers the placeholder for grants for historic west wall will go towards Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance service costs this coming year.
The ambulances are not the only thing being improved in the upcoming months, however. The beautification of Lisbon is a concern that many have after approximately three hundred trees had to be cut down because of water mane projects and ash borer issues.
As a result, the Lisbon City Council plans to place about $2,500 into a Trees Forever grant. This was not something done this past year, but will likely be carried out next year.