<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Lane Memorial Library, Hampton, NH</TITLE> </head>
Usually you must add a doctype definition for IE to not go into quirks mode of some kind, also, all html-tags in modern variants should be lowercase as far as I know, - at least for xhtml.
If all that you want is just a custom front html page, there should be no need to make it so complicated, (in drupal 7) you can create a custom front page by choosing a custom node as the frontpage. On there you can disable all blocks and make everything else that you do not want invisible by just adding a line of css to your template:
body.front div.region-page-top, body.front div.EVERYTHING_THAT_YOU_DO_NOT_WANT_TO_SEE {display: none;}
Also if you have standard columns on the left and right, you might just change their color by creating a subtheme of your theme (look at this site: http://drupal.org/node/225125) and just changing the color for the front page columns:
body.front div.YOUR-RIGHT_AND_LEFT_COLUMNS {background-color:#b3e0b8; border:2px solid #dce7d5;}
You can also use a tool like webdeveloper toolbar for firefox or something alike to check for problems with your code.
Since you seem to not so sure in dealing with CSS and HTML this might be a quick-n-dirty way to make the frontpage look clean (also have a look at: http://tips.webdesign10.com/drupal/how-make-a-custom-front-page-drupal-316.h...) Be sure to not make it look like this: http://www.pombredens.com/ or this: http://www.bellads.info/