McGregor Library: Highland Park gets $342,000

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This is a very good start to a new beginning for HP. We can really build off of the restoration of this awesome building.

Highland Park residents, city officials and schoolchildren gathered Monday at City Hall as Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced $342,000 in grants to help restore the city's McGregor Public Library.

The city was awarded a $110,000 Cities of Promise grant and a $232,000 Clean Energy Coalition grant. The former is to be used to jump-start fund-raising for the library, and the latter likely will be used to upgrade existing lighting at the library with natural and energy-efficient technologies.
"This contribution made by the governor, and by her coming here, shows how significant the library and this project is to her," said Terry Ford, the city's attorney. "This is truly a great thing."
The library, which opened in 1926 at Woodward and Massachusetts, was closed in 2002 as the city struggled financially and the state appointed an emergency financial manager to oversee the city.

In 2006, Granholm created the Cities of Promise initiative to redevelop communities with job losses, blighted neighborhoods and declining populations.
Highland Park, along with seven other cities including Pontiac and Hamtramck, received grant money under the initiative, which is scheduled to end Dec. 31.
Each city had to create a signature project. Highland Park officials chose to focus on eventually reopening the McGregor Library and launched a $9.3-million restoration campaign.

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority, which oversees the Cities of Promise initiative, earlier this year provided two full-time project managers to help the city assess the capital improvements that need to be made to reopen the library and solicit funding.
"Libraries are important components of civil society -- they can be the social and cultural anchor of smaller communities," Granholm said.