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07/04/2017 02:55 PMOnly a few months after a successful referendum, the ad-hoc Library Expansion Building Committee has been making strides to prepare for an April 2018 anticipated construction start. With an architect and an Owners Project Manager (OPM) now under contract, the committee is undertaking new studies on the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library for up-to-date cost estimates and to look for potential energy-saving options.
The current renovation plan for the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library is a scaled-down version of the plan that Madison voters narrowly defeated in a 2008 referendum vote. Current designs for the building work to preserve the historical architecture while improving the streetscape and expanding the floor plan. The square footage of the building will jump from 17,000 to 37,000 and a 45-space parking lot will be added.
The project to renovate the library is estimated to cost $15 million, but thanks to substantial grants and fundraising efforts, the library asked the town to bond for $9.1 million. At referendum on Feb. 7, voters approved the bonding total with 1,897 “Yes” votes to 550 “No” votes.
Before the referendum, library officials established a capital campaign known as “Futures” to cover the $6 million library portion of the project. When the library project passed at referendum in February, the library had about $1.6 million left to raise. That number is down to less than $1.1 million.
As library officials manage the fundraising, the committee has signed contracts with the architect LLB Architects and OPM Colliers International and lined up a few other companies to help with additional studies, according to committee member and Library Director Beth Crowley.
“We approved a contract for the company CorBuilt LLC to do a survey to mark out underground utilities and structures and A.M. Fogarty and Associates, Inc., to provide an independent cost estimate of the schematic design to compare with the original done last year,” she said. “We also approved a proposal from John Sima of Hydro Dynamic Engineering to do a feasibility study on the possibility of putting in a geothermal heat pump system instead of using a traditional HVAC system.”
While discussions at committee meetings have been wide-ranging, at a recent meeting on June 26 the committee focused in on certain energy efficiency options and the financial need to build a cost-efficient building.
“If the goal is to bring in the utilities at what they are now or less, we can’t look at normal stuff, we can’t look at leaving the old envelope the way it is and cross our fingers,” said committee member Woodie Weiss. “I think it is really important that right now, before too much time goes by, that we integrate how to bring this building in at a lower cost of operation than we have planned initially or wasn’t planned.”
Weiss, also a member of the energy and efficiency committee, said it is important to build a great building, but also build something that the library can afford to run in the future.
“Eversource is assisting us with both a modeling program to determine the most energy saving design to minimize operating costs for the addition and also providing an energy audit of the existing building with suggestions to make it more efficient going forward,” said Crowley.
At the meeting, the committee also formally settled on a chairperson. Library Board of Trustees Vice-President Henry Griggs had been serving as temporary chair, but the committee unanimously decided to have a chair who is not directly connected with the library. Graham Curtis is now the permanent chair and Griggs will serve as vice-chair.