ELLSWORTH – The local hospital is getting a $250,000 gift from a Maine philanthropic organization to put toward a major planned expansion project at the medical care facility.

The Portland-based Libra Foundation is giving Maine Coast Memorial Hospital the grant for a planned 25,000-square-foot addition, according to Owen Wells, foundation president.

Wells said Wednesday that the foundation recognized the significance of the project and the benefit to the region in granting the money to the hospital.

“We contribute to worthy causes across the state,” Wells said. “Their hospital is clearly one of them.”

The Libra Foundation gives between $10 million and $15 million each year, only to charitable organizations in Maine, Wells said. Doug Jones, president and CEO of the hospital, said Wednesday that with the gift, the hospital has raised $3.3 million of the $5.5 million it hopes to raise publicly for the expansion project. “Foundation support is going to be critical to the success of the campaign,” Jones said. “We asked for $250,000 from this foundation, and they saw fit to take care of us.”

The overall expansion project, which is expected to cost $10.5 million, will provide the hospital with new operating rooms, a new intensive care unit and a new food service facility, hospital officials have said. Of the expected $10.5 million overall cost, $5 million will be appropriated through private means.

The gift is being made in honor of Marcia Chapman and Mary Gould, two Brooksville residents who founded the Bagaduce Music Library, according to Wells.

The two women were “great friends” of Elizabeth Noyce, who founded the Libra Foundation in 1989, he said. “They brought a great deal of joy to Mrs. Noyce during her life,” Wells said.

The two women are expected to be at the hospital Friday to meet with Wells, Frederick Hutchinson, chairman of the hospital’s capital campaign, and other hospital officials.

The construction project will include the renovation of 20,000 square feet of existing space at the facility, according to hospital officials. The hospital’s outpatient surgery, emergency medicine, maternity and reception areas will be renovated or expanded.

A new, $600,000 magnetic-resonance-imaging facility completed last spring and new buildings for an orthopedics practice and the hospital’s primary-care services also are considered part of the hospital’s overall expansion.

The last time the 46-year-old facility pursued a building project was in 1989, according to hospital officials.

They have said they hope to have all the new facilities completed by 2006.