ELLSWORTH — A state grant sought by the Ellsworth City Library’s board of trustees could expand the facility’s reading experience to the banks of the Union River.

Nature trails, park benches on the river banks and labeled species of flowers, plants and trees are all possibilities that could materialize through the state’s Department of Parks and Recreation grant program.

Pat Foster, Ellsworth librarian, said the library’s board of trustees approved a $24,000 conceptual plan Wednesday to literally “spruce up” the 400 feet of river frontage that is part of the library grounds.

State officials will be notified of the board’s decision within the week. Foster said a representative from the department will then be scheduled to personally inspect the proposed site improvements. The landscaping plan can also be implemented in stages if necessary, she said.

Foster was particularly excited about plans for a nature park filled with existing plants and trees in addition to others indigenous to the region. Identification labels would be placed near each specimen, she said, and a brochure would guide visitors through a walking tour of the park.

“It’s not going to be a quick-fix project,” Foster said. “We feel that we’ve got a first-class building here and we want to have a first-class landscaping scheme.”

In other library business, a plan to charge user fees to out-of-town card holders went down in unanimous defeat after being continued for action on the board’s agenda for the last nine months. Thanks to generous contributions from surrounding communities, Foster said, the city library will remain a free service to all for another year.

“(The support) was much better than last year — only two towns turned us down,” she said. “In fact, we had a contribution from a town whose warrant we weren’t even on.”

Other items of interest included:

A $15,000 donation from Lloyd Umberhind, of Surry, was announced by the trustees Wednesday. Interest from the gift will be used for the purchase of books. The library contribution was the second largest to be received this year after the Paul Whitcomb endowment of $25,000.

Foster said she has not formulated her 1993 library budget yet and is awaiting budget guidelines and deadlines from Ellsworth City Manager Timothy J. King. Much of the delay centers on the city’s planned transition from its current calendar year to a fiscal year allowing greater cooperative planning with the school department which is already on the July-to-June budget.

The library’s four union employees and the board of trustees have reached agreement on a working labor contract. Foster described the formal approval of the agreement as a “formality” that should be concluded within the month.