SHUTESBURY - The next step in the long-running debate over whether to build a new library in Shutesbury was to occur Thursday, when the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners was set to hear a request to extend the deadline for accepting a $2.1 million state grant.

The state had given Shutesbury until Tuesday to accept the money to help pay for a new $3.5 million library.

But after months of campaigning, three votes and a recount, the town is deadlocked 522-522 over a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion override needed to pay the town's $1.4 million share of the project. The tie vote means the question fails, and Shutesbury is now faced with the possibility of losing the state grant.

Rosemary Waltos, library building consultant for the commissioners, said that the state would not withdraw the grant until the request for an extension is heard.

Whether the state will extend the deadline or choose to give the money to another community is one of the key questions for library supporters, who are considering a legal challenge to the Board of Registrars' decision to throw out a vote cast Jan. 10 by a library supporter who had registered to vote in Kentucky.

Library supporters have said that was inconsistent with the registrars' decision to count the votes against the library cast by a couple who live part of the year in Shutesbury, spend winters in Florida and have voted in both places.

Karen Traub, a leading supporter of the library, said they would likely wait for the library commissioners to decide on the extension before filing a lawsuit.

"People are talking with each other and conferring," Traub said. "It is such a big step, people are wanting to be thoughtful."