January 2, 2015
Welcome, New Year!
We continue to meet and plan for the renovated library. In early January we hope to receive approval of our Design Development documents from the Development Review Committee (DRC) and the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC). The library is sited in the Downtown Historic District and changes or additions to the facade require final approval from the HPC and the DRC in order to move forward with the next phase of the project, which is the creation of the Construction Documents. Our architects--Sara Rothholtz Weiner, Michael Roehr and Chris Schmitt have met with both groups to gather feedback on the initial design, and have incorporated this input into the final design. With those approvals we will bring the final design to the City Council in late January.
Our project schedule has shifted as we allow time for the several approvals and reviews and their necessary meeting deadlines. At this point, it looks like we may be under construction in May and reopening in the fall, but this could change in the future.
Interim Services
While we are still several months away from breaking ground, we have been planning for library services during the period when the building will be under construction. What has been determined so far:
- We will be moving public library services to the second floor of City Hall, in the present Training Room. Our workspaces, Interlibrary Loan processing and other "back room" functions will be located across the hall in the former Engineering suite of offices.
- Most of our print collection will be in storage off-site, but we will have our more popular materials, including newspapers, magazines and DVDs in the Interim location.
- Requests for library materials not in our Interim location will be handled through Interlibrary Loan.
- We will have public Internet available; also free WiFi.
- We will have a Summer Reading program, although it will be conducted from Booker the Bookmobile at City park locations on a regular schedule.
- Hours are yet to be determined, depending on traffic to the Interim library.
- We will have a temporary outside bookdrop at City Hall for materials returns.