LEWISTON – Construction crews at the Lewiston Public Library plan to begin moving indoors in about a month.

Scaffolding around the building along Pine Street should start coming down in November, according to Library Director Rick Speer. Sidewalks around the building won’t reopen until March, however, as work on the $2.7 million renovation project continues.

“It’s coming along quickly now,” Speer said. “They’re working on the floors and reworking the windows.”

The library is expanding into the rest of the Pilsbury Block at the corner of Lisbon and Pine streets, according to plans. The renovation will give the library an expanded fiction section, a bright first-floor lobby, a second-floor historical records archive and a third-floor meeting and performance space with room for 150 people. The city hopes to store historical records from the Franklin Co. and Bates Mill in a new archive there.

Work on the street level storefront is next on the list, but Speer said that part of the project likely won’t be completed until March. That will keep sidewalks along Pine Street closed.

The entire project is scheduled to wrap up in May 2005.

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