With the sale of the old library building on Main Street finalized, the Farmingdale Library Board can begin focusing on a major initiative to increase the new library's collection.

The board recently finalized the sale of the old building to 274 Main Street LLC for $170,000. The entity represented Lessing's, Inc., a family-owned company which owns restaurants and operates banquet facilities throughout Long Island. Lessing's is expected to open a library-themed restaurant in the building.

The proceeds of the sale will go directly to increasing the collection at the new library on Merritts Road, according to Dina Chrils, director of the Farmingdale Library. "We're delighted to have the deal finally consummated and done," she said. "People are asking for more materials constantly, and this will be a way to do it without a tax burden." The increase in the collection will be primarily in the form of books, although Chrils noted that other materials will also be purchased. She added that library officials are excited about the infusion of funds because, "We've been doing collection all along," but that this will be a "shot in the arm" without raising taxes. According to Chrils, the library board had long had a consensus about the plan to use the funds for increasing the collection. "There was never any doubt in their minds that that's what they were going to do with the proceeds," she said.

The library board went into contract for sale with Lessing's in November, 1997, according to Chrils, who noted that after the company obtained necessary permits from the Incorporated Village of Farmingdale, the sale was closed on June 30.

The building had been on the real estate market since 1994, the same year that the new library was built. Since then, the board had met with various prospective buyers. These ranged from a prospective store owner to prospective museum operators. One party wanted to use the upstairs as an office and the downstairs as a police and fire equipment store. This prospective buyer, who presented an offer in 1995, could not obtain a mortgage. The prospective museum operators had widespread community support. However, according to Chrils, after the library board had entertained the idea for almost a year, the prospective buyer did not put forward any funding. "In that period of time, no money ever materialized," she said, noting that this left the board with no other option but to pursue other buyers.

With the sale of the old library building, the library sheds the expense of maintaining it. The maintenance had included insurance, a service charge for electric, as well as shoveling snow and heating the building in the winter. It had cost the library district approximately $6,000 per year, funds taken from the new library's operating budget.

Although it is a relief to no longer have this expense, Chrils noted, for her, the closing of the deal did not happen without some sad sentiment. "It's a phase in this library's history that's finally passed over," she said.