ANNAPOLIS — Del. John P. Donoghue, D-Washington, has helped preliminarily secure for the Washington County Free Library funding that was not included in the capital budget being considered by state lawmakers.

Donoghue offered an amendment to the budget Thursday morning that would take $5 million from $15 million in funding proposed for a new Maryland State Police barrack in Hagerstown and transfer it to the library renovation project. The amendment was adopted unanimously.

The House on Thursday preliminarily passed the capital budget that includes Donoghue's amendment. The Senate has a different version, which does not include Donoghue's amendment, and a compromise will need to be reached in conference.

Donoghue said his amendment would allow both projects to begin this year. He expects the $5 million that was removed from the barrack funding to be included in the fiscal year 2011 capital budget. Donoghue says he also expects another $5 million for the library to be added in fiscal year 2011.

"I didn't want it delayed another year," Donoghue said of the library project. "We don't know what the economy will be like."

A lobbying coalition from Washington County worked last year to raise awareness for needed improvements to the county library. Library funding was the coalition's top priority this year, but it was not included in the proposed capital budget for 2010.

Funding for a new Maryland State Police barrack in Hagerstown was included in previous state budget proposals but later removed. This year, the full $15 million was included in the proposed capital budget for 2010.

"Both projects are important," Donoghue said. "I think that the timing here was critical."

Hagerstown Barrack Commander Lt. David Kloos said the construction of the new barrack, which will be built on the same site as the current barrack off of Sharpsburg Pike, will take 20 to 24 months. With that time frame, delaying the remaining $5 million in funding will not have any effect on the project's completion, he said.

Ground is expected to broken by July, Kloos said.

"We don't need the whole $15.3 million now to build the whole barracks," Kloos said. "We just need some money to get us started."

Washington County Free Library Director Mary Baykan was out of the office Thursday and unavailable to comment.

The library has asked the state for about $10 million toward its $18 million renovation project because it houses a state regional library.

Donoghue said Thursday about 1,000 people use the downtown Hagerstown library daily. However, it has an outdated electrical system and other needs.

"Simply plugging in the wrong thing can cause absolute chaos," he said.

Hagerstown's current state police barrack is 9,200 square feet and more than 35 years old. The new one would be 11,750 square feet, officials have said.

The two-story replacement would have a training classroom and a forensics lab. Depending on staffing, police would test latent fingerprints there instead of sending them to a police lab in Pikesville.

The state fire marshal's Hagerstown office, in a rented storefront on Jonathan Street, would move to the new barrack's second floor, Kloos said. The fire marshal's office is a division of the Maryland State Police.

Along with a new barrack, the state police would get a new garage with an extra bay for a bomb squad trailer that now sits at a volunteer fire hall.

The existing barrack and garage eventually would be demolished. Kloos said surveying work already has begun for phone lines and fiber optic cables.

"We need the room," he said. "We're out of room. We don't have any office space for anybody anymore."