John C. Hart Library Receives Large Gift from Woman’s Estate
John C. Hart Library will soon be making several upgrades thanks to a former patron who left the 96-year-old institution in Shrub Oak $390,854 in her will.
Library Director Patricia Hallinan notified the Yorktown Town Board last week of the generous gift made by Alice Maram, who died on April 15, 2013. The library learned about the funding about a year later but some legal hurdles had to be cleared before the money could be deposited into the library’s Trustees Gift Fund.
“The Library Board of Trustees will ensure that her gift to the library will provide a lasting benefit to library users in the Town of Yorktown,” Hallinan said.
Maram was a teacher, art collector and a naturalist. According to Hallinan, Maram and her sister, Cora Sanders, spent summers in Shrub Oak Colony before Sanders and her husband moved there permanently and Maram visited often on weekends and vacations. Maram also eventually relocated to the area full-time. She died at the Fieldhome in Cortlandt.
Hallinan said the library plans to use some of the money to renovate the three public bathrooms and make them Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant for the handicapped and elderly. Plans are also in the works to remodel the adult room and library officials will be reaching out to the community for input on that project.
“This truly is a gift and we’re really looking to make necessary improvements to the physical library,” said Library Board of Trustees President Michael Resko. “In the long-term it will be incredibly beneficial. In all respects, it’s a blessing to the library.”
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