Nearly a year after contractors broke ground on a new library for Edgartown, the project is overbudget and behind schedule. That was the report selectmen received at their weekly meeting Monday from the library building committee, which is asking the town to allocate additional funds for the $10.3 million project.

“We are looking at needing some more money to complete the project,” project manager Richard W. Pomroy told the board.

Elevator and interior wall studs will soon be installed.

Mark Alan Lovewell

Elevator and interior wall studs will soon be installed.

Mark Alan Lovewell

The 15,000-square-foot building, which stands next to the Edgartown School on West Tisbury Road, is about two-thirds complete. Contractors originally expected to finish by June, but the project has fallen a few months behind schedule. Delays started in May with the discovery of a high water table at the site. Additional challenges came when winter brought near-record snowfall, low temperatures and high winds.

“We’ve had a bad couple of months, let’s face it,” Mr. Pomroy said. “I think everybody has with the weather.” Recently, he said, the momentum is picking up. The elevator and interior wall studs will soon be installed, and scaffolding is coming down, Mr. Pomroy said.

In April, the library committee will ask voters to add $225,000 to the project budget at the special town meeting. If approved, funds would come from the proceeds of the sale of the Warren House, a property adjacent to the current library that the town originally planned to use for the library expansion. But it’s still not clear whether $225,000 will cover the full cost of the project.

On Monday, the library building committee presented a budget that included an additional $484,173 to cover unforeseen costs that are anticipated or have been incurred already, as well as a contingency allowance. But selectmen said they’d only support the $225,000 request at this time.

“In my mind, it’s too much of an amount to ask for right now,” said selectman Margaret Serpa.

In the meantime, the project can continue within the existing budget, dipping into the budget line item for furniture if need be. There is also some money available from the Edgartown Library Foundation (ELF), which began raising money in 2004 for a library project. However, there are two complications with that funding source. For one, the town does not know the exact amount of funds available. And on Monday, library trustee Deanna Ahearn Laird explained the second complication: the money the foundation raised was earmarked for an expansion project at the current library site in downtown Edgartown.

“We can go back to ELF for specific items, but I don’t think we are at a point where they are able or willing to transfer the funds completely to us because they are on a restriction for where the library is going to be, meaning the old Carnegie site,” she said.

Selectman Arthur Smadbeck said the funds should be returned to the donors if they are not going to be used for the project. If the private donations don’t come through, Mr. Smadbeck said the town may have to return to voters for more cash.

Selectman Michael Donaroma said his board and the library committee should communicate with the foundation and ask for money to purchase the furniture.

“At the end of the day, we have a beautiful building that is two-thirds of the way done, that the town voted overwhelmingly a number of times that they want,” he said. “We just need to get it done.”