SHUTESBURY — Being held just days before Thanksgiving, supporters of a new Shutesbury library are hoping that an inaugural road race will get the project closer to an additional $90,000 in private fundraising needed to move the project forward.

With $460,000 already collected privately, a groundbreaking for the new building at 66 Leverett Road remains on track for next May, with an opening in summer 2025.

The 5K Roadtown Turkey Trot is set for Saturday, Nov. 18, at 9 a.m., starting from the Shutesbury Elementary School at 23 West Pelham Road and traversing some of the town’s gravel roads.

“We are immensely proud of what our small town has achieved so far,” Library Director Mary Anne Antonellis said in a statement. “The Roadtown Turkey Trot is not only an opportunity to bring us closer to our goal, but also to create a fun and festive event that hopefully will become an annual tradition in Shutesbury.”

The current M.N. Spear Memorial Library, on the common across from Town Hall, was built in 1902, but has just 900 square feet, no running water and no bathroom. The new building, at just under 5,000 square feet and being designed by Oudens Ello Architecture of Boston, will have a community meeting room that seats 50, a study room, and seating areas in the adults, teen and children’s rooms.

“At just under 5,000 square feet, it is going to be big compared to our current library but it is still going to be a small library, designed to serve our small town,” Antonellis said.

As the only community selected last year to participate in the Massachusetts Small Library Pilot Project, covering 75% of the cost to build the new library, the town is responsible for the other quarter of costs. The most recent estimates, provided over the summer, show the building at a cost of $8.55 million.

Town spending approved through a Town Meeting vote and a Proposition 2½ debt-exclusion vote is for $2.44 million. Other sources have included $109,000 from the Friends of the M.N. Spear Memorial Library, $20,000 in grants and $70,644 to be transferred from the Spear Trust.

The latest building plans were sent to a cost estimator last week, with those expected back by the end of the month. In addition to making the building a bit smaller, though still accommodating the existing collection and meeting the town’s needs for the next 20 years, the building and grounds will be about 120 feet closer to the road than had been planned, with expected cost savings from that.

“We were trying to minimize impacts on wetlands and the buffer zone by placing the building farther south, but moving it closer to the road saves about $1 million,” Antonellis explained.

While the project will impact the buffer zone to the wetlands to the east and west, the property has previously disturbed areas, including a home, garage and road. Mitigation measures are expected to include improving the wetland meadow by removing invasive plant species, such as bittersweet and knotweed, and replacing them with native plants.

The building will have fossil fuel-free energy systems, with power coming from a roof-mounted solar array.

Meanwhile, the road race was an idea from resident Samantha Spisiak, who is an avid runner and expects to participate along with her husband, Andy, and their three young children.

“When we moved to Shutesbury, we missed this part of our Thanksgiving celebration,” Spisiak explained. “We decided to start a new a tradition in our community while supporting our library at the same time.”

The title of the race takes its name from Shutesbury’s original name, derived from the time in 1735 when settlers received a land grant as payment for building the great road from Lancaster to Sunderland.

For those in the timed 5K run/walk, there is a $35 entry fee. The shorter Kids’ Fun Run, starting 15 minutes later, has a $15 entry fee, and will take place on the track behind the school. There will be prizes for race division winners and a drawing for Thanksgiving-themed prizes, including a turkey, cranberry sauce made from local cranberries and a ready-to-bake apple pie.

Participants can register for the Roadtown Turkey Trot at roadtown.org.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.