CAPE ELIZABETH – Thanks to the overwhelming support of Cape Elizabeth residents during last week’s election, a long-awaited plan to renovate and expand the 102-year-old Thomas Memorial Library – this time, for $4 million – is finally becoming a reality.

Members of the town’s Library Building Committee have begun to prepare the existing library space for the renovation, and planners are in the midst of raising additional money as part of a capital campaign for furniture, fixtures and other equipment inside the renovated library.

The Thomas Memorial Library Foundation recently launched the public phase of its building fund with a goal of raising $700,000 to cover the cost of outfitting the new facility, according to Frank Governali, member of the building committee and the Capital Campaign Committee.

Zachau Construction of Freeport is expected to break ground in early spring 2015 and wrap up construction by the end of next year, Governali said.

“I think it fits well with what made sense for Cape Elizabeth in terms of its size and cost,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think it was the right plan, at the right price at the right time, with good community input throughout the process.”

On Nov. 4, Cape Elizabeth voters approved a $4 million bond, 3,587-1,798, to renovate the existing building on Scott Dyer Road. Voters in 2012 rejected a larger plan, pegged at $6 million, for the project.

Of the most recent vote, councilor Molly MacAuslan, chairwoman of the Building Committee said, “It was a landslide victory. I couldn’t be more pleased. I had a great committee, and we worked hard, but more importantly, we had a ton of input from the public along the way.”

According to MacAuslan, 64 percent of voters in Cape Elizabeth supported the newest proposal, which includes a $200,000 contingency fund for unanticipated expenses and $150,000 to provide temporary library facilities at the Spurwink School.

MacAuslan said the building committee does not foresee spending the $200,000, and the cost to the median household in Cape Elizabeth will be about $50 annually, or less than $1 per week, for the life of the 20-year loan.

The Spurwink School will be renovated in order to accommodate 40 percent of the entire library collection, according to Library Director Jay Scherma, while 60 percent of the collection will go into storage. During the construction period, Scherma said that the adult library collection and services would be relocated to the library’s Community Room, and children’s programs will occur in the current picture book area of the children’s library, said Scherma. Young adult materials will be available in what is now the children’s general fiction section.

“At this point, it looks like we will be closed the week of Jan. 5-12 for the actual move,” Scherma said. “In the middle of January we will be in the children’s library, and that will be our temporary home for the next 10 months.”

Scherma said he was “very pleased” with the voters’ decision to approve the library project.

“It has been an awful lot of work, not for myself, but for the dozens of people who have volunteered since we began working on this in 2008. It will be a vastly improved facility,” he said.

The Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society, which is housed at the library, will be temporarily moved to the public safety building while renovations take place, MacAuslan said.

According to Governali, the building fund, which officially kicked off this summer, has raised more than 70 percent toward its overall fundraising goal to pay for library furniture, fixtures and equipment.

“They’ve raised close to half-a-million dollars in the last four or five months in anticipation of this being a successful project,” said MacAuslan of the Capital Campaign Committee.

The library plan, created by Reed & Co. Architecture of Portland, calls for preserving and renovating the most prominent section of the library – the former Pond Cove School, built in 1912 – and making it energy efficient, as well as constructing a two-story addition that will replace the 1985 connector building. While the lower level of the new building will become the new children’s area and provide space for meetings and programs, the upper level of the library will house the adult and young adult collections, and study spaces and media labs.

Renovations also include creating a pedestrian connection between the library and the adjacent elementary school, an outdoor play space, a reading garden and an outdoor stage for performances. The parking lot will be expanded to 53 spaces and redesigned.

New construction will increase the overall size of the library by 10 percent, from 14,500 to 16,000 square feet, and create nearly 40 percent more useable space, MacAuslan said. The Thomas Memorial Library hasn’t been modernized in almost 30 years, she added.

“I think it was really important for the community that we keep this (Pond Cove annex) building that faces Scott Dyer Road because it has such a presence out on the streetscape but also in people’s hearts,” MacAuslan said.

Library patrons on Monday said they were pleased the community supported the library plan and said they were looking forward to the updated library in 2015.

“I’m glad it passed,” said Cape Elizabeth resident Aaron Agrodnia.

“We are very excited,” said Erin Taylor, also from Cape Elizabeth. “I think it’s a wonderful community facility for people to come and gather. It’s a real gem for the town, and it would be a loss if we didn’t fix it.”

Library Building Committee members Jessica Sullivan, left, and Molly MacAuslan express their excitement in front of Thomas Memorial Library after last week’s approval of a $4 million bond to renovate and expand the aging building.