SOUTH HADLEY - The town will move forward on building a new library, now that Town Meeting voters have approved borrowing up to $4.2 million to finance the new structure.

Voters at Wednesday's special Town Meeting voted 67 to 17 to approve the borrowing - nearly 80 percent in favor. Meeting Moderator Edward Ryan told voters the measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass, because it involved borrowing.

The vote in Town Hall auditorium came after about two-and-a-half hours of discussion.

Mitchell Resnick, chair of the South Hadley Library Board of Trustees, was jubilant after the vote.

"What a great night," he said. "Now we get to build." He also praised volunteers who whipped up support for the library project. "So many hours of volunteer work went into this," he said.

The vote capped a four-year effort to unite voters behind the proposal to build a new $10.1 million, 20,000-square-foot library on the banks of the Connecticut River to replace the 27 Bardwell St. library that trustees say is too small, not fully accessible to patrons with physical challenges and in poor condition.

The Bardwell Street library was built in 1906, and enlarged to its present 8,000 square feet in 1974.

Library Director Joseph Rodio told Town Meeting voters it will cost about $230,000 to make necessary repairs there, without addressing the need for handicapped accessibility.

After voters approved the measure, Rodio said he is "incredibly relieved that we made it," and that he is grateful for voters' "open enthusiasm for this project."

Rodio previously had termed Wednesday's Town Meeting vote as "the last major hurdle," standing in the way of breaking ground for a new library.

Most who spoke at Town Meeting urged voters to approve the project.

"We have this amazing opportunity before us right now," said Sarah Etelman of Precinct C, referring to the $4.8 state grant awarded South Hadley in July to build the new library.

The average $37 a year the project will add to the tax bill for a typical South Hadley home valued at $234,000 is equivalent to "a tank of gas," she said.

Voters agreed to a temporary tax hike for the 20-year term of a library bond in a Nov. 8 special election.

State Rep. John Scibak, a Town Meeting member, urged his colleagues to approve the measure, saying the debt-exclusion vote, which passed 55 percent to 45 percent, won support in all five town precincts.

"The reality is, this town has already spoken," he said.

But Town Meeting member Larry Dubois objected, saying the scope of the project, its cost and its location in South Hadley Falls were all reasons to reject the measure.

"There are options other than this," Dubois said, noting that 45 percent of voters at the Nov. 8 election were opposed to exempting the cost of library borrowing from the town's tax levy limit.