RANDOLPH — The Board of Trustees of Kimball Public Library and the Selectboard are at odds over funding for roof fixes and other repairs for the 124-year-old library building.
The trustees contend the Selectboard has slow-walked the approval a $150,000 grant and inappropriately sought a third-party estimate for the project without holding a formal public process to do so.
Frustrated over repair delays, Heather Bowman, treasurer of the Kimball trustees, has filed an open meeting law violation complaint against the Selectboard with the state’s Attorney General’s Office, after first bringing it to the Selectboard directly on Jan. 15.
“The library building is suffering active structural damage while the Selectboard delays based on a contractor estimate that doesn’t exist,” Bowman wrote in the complaint dated Jan. 15.
But Selectboard members have defended their actions, saying they conducted appropriate due diligence and rejecting claims of an open meeting violation. If a public body acknowledges an open meeting violation occurred, it has 14 days to cure it, according to the Vermont Agency of Administration.
Since the Selectboard dismissed the violation complaint, Bowman contacted the Vermont Attorney General’s office to move forward.
The Attorney General’s Office received the complaint filed by Bowman and is in the process of reviewing submitted materials, Amelia Vath, a senior advisor to the attorney general, said.
“If the AGO determines that there was a violation, the office will tailor its next steps to the particular set of facts,” said Vath.
Fundraising for the project is still hundreds of thousands of dollars short of the trustees’ goal, Selectboard Chairwoman Trini Brassard said, so there is no reason to move quickly to approve the grant.
“I don’t think you’ll see that on the agenda until there’s a way to fund the project,” Brassard said Friday.
Cupola damage
In 2015, librarians noticed a leak in the domed cupola that sits on top of the library. The roof remains compromised, Library Director Amy Grasmick said in an interview on Monday. She noted occasional water spots in the library as evidence of the continued issue.
Since then, the Selectboard has pledged $140,000 for repairs.
And the Board of Trustees has secured a total of $600,000 for the $800,000 cupola project.
Trustees are seeking an additional $400,000 to cover the remaining amount, along with front porch restoration and additional roof repairs, according to the Board of Trustees’ Jan. 19 meeting minutes.
In June 2023, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, or VHCB, offered a $150,000 to go toward the project, and that grant has become a source of friction between the two the boards.
The VHCB offered a $150,000 grant to contribute to the cost of the cupola repairs. One condition of the grant involves a perpetual easement on the building which would hold it up to VHCB historic preservation standards, enforcing maintenance of the building’s historic and architectural integrity.
Easements on a municipal building give up future flexibility, Brassard said Friday by phone.
“You just never want to give up control of a building,” Brassard said.
Kimball Library Director Amy Grasmick said the Selectboard appears to have misunderstood the purpose and value of having the easement.
Along with the funds, VHCB can provide expert advice and tools to preserve Kimball Library as a historic building, she said. It can help the library avoid well-intentioned but misguided decisions. And VHCB can help library trustees identify other funding resources.
While trustees have pushed for the Selectboard to accept this grant, it appears the two boards have time to resolve their differences.
VHCB is willing to keep the $150,000 award open while the town figures out its next steps, said Elizabeth Egan, general counsel for VHCB. There is no urgency to withdraw the grant at this point.
“We are not decommitting at any time in the future. We’ve made that clear,” said Egan.
Another issue that has put the boards at odds is the estimated cost and sequence of the repairs.
Thaler Reilly Wilson Architecture and Preservation completed a condition assessment in May 2025. The subsequent cost report in September set the price at $767,000 for cupola restoration.
But the Randolph Selectboard wanted another opinion.
Based on information provided to Bowman following a public records request, Town Manager Trevor Lashua reached out to the Robert Morgan Co. on Oct. 31, with the intention to get a clear scope of the work, materials and hours along with a new estimate.
In the interview Friday, Brassard specified that the Selectboard has not made grant acceptance contingent on the second assessment: “There’s never been something that said, ‘Once we have this estimate, then we’ll accept this grant’.”
Trustees contend the decision to pursue a contractor was not made in open meeting and that the contractor was not identified through a formal process, according to the Jan. 19 meeting minutes.
Brassard argued that conversations between members outside of public meetings are allowed so long as they don’t constitute a quorum. Residents expect the Selectboard to examine costs for projects using tax dollars, Brassard said. As for the contingency issue, she said it’s simply not true.
The project remains $400,000 dollars short of what it needs to begin, therefore Brassard sees no need to rush on approving the grant.
Lashua also asked the Robert Morgan Co. about the possibility of completing the project in phases, Brassard said Friday.
Grasmick said it would be most cost-effective to do all repairs at once. Scaffolding is expensive, she said, and many aspects of the project cannot be completed without the others, she said.
“All of the restoration that needs to happen is integrated,” Grasmick said. “It’s not like you can pull the copper cladding off the wood substructure and then just leave it.”