The Waterville Public Library, an imposing downtown brick and granite structure built more than a century ago with money provided by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, is run down and in need of repair and renovation.

But these days, there are no Andrew Carnegies spreading their vast wealth around to benefit libraries across the United States.

The library has proposed a project to repair its roof, heating and air conditioning systems and construct a small addition to house an elevator and a new entrance on the Waterville Concourse. The library also must fix a growing mold and air quality problem and upgrade the children’s room, offices, the Maine history room and other spaces.

The project is projected to cost $3.1 million.

The building is owned by the city. Last year, there were 144,000 total library visits, from parents and toddlers attending reading sessions to children, teens and adults participating in a national program to promote science literacy, to the elderly who just want to borrow books.

Community meetings were held in the library, play groups met there. Workshops were given for parents and caregivers of toddlers.

The Waterville Public Library is a well-used building — and it looks it. The building could be even more well-used if the numerous people with disabilities who can’t get up or down its stairs could access upper and lower floors. But without an elevator, the building isn’t handicapped-accessible.

So a committee of library supporters got together and, working with the energetic and creative new library director, Sarah Sugden, came up with the plan to both repair and renovate the building. While the plan will directly improve the building’s health, function and appearance — which is good for library users, the city that owns it and those who work in it — it also has the advantage of turning the library’s entrance toward downtown. By doing that, the thousands of people who stream into and out of the building will do that from downtown, an area that needs more pedestrian traffic.

The library committee has gone out into the community and raised $600,000. It hopes to raise more. But it also has asked the city of Waterville, whose citizens’ lives are so enriched by the library in their midst, to contribute the substantial sum of $1.5 million to the project.

In early discussions about the request, city councilors evidently have discussed giving half that amount. They do so in the context of a city that must pay for a number of important capital needs, such as expansion of the main public works department and construction of a new building for maintenance and repair of city vehicles and equipment.

If city councilors haven’t seen the library recently, they can take a tour with the library’s director, who can show them the peeling paint, the curling roof shingles, the water damage, poor lighting and lack of accessibility. They can walk down to the lower-level children’s room and smell the musty odors of mold and decay. They can see the reading rooms that don’t have comfortable chairs for reading, the volumes of vintage books damaged by too much heat and moisture.

The Waterville Public Library’s supporters already have demonstrated substantial community support for their project by raising more than half a million dollars. While the city has pressing problems and a limited budget, the library project should be high on the list of what needs to be done in Waterville.

We urge city councilors to approve the library’s request for $1.5 million, in the understanding that a library is as much a part of the infrastructure and maintenance of a community as trucks and plows. Or more so.