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09/06/2017 08:38 AMAs progress continues on plans for the renovation of the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library, the ad-hoc Library Expansion Building Committee has had to jump through a couple hoops in the last week involving the timeline and a few grant requirements. Despite that, the committee is still looking at starting construction in late spring of 2018 and is getting ready to finalize the contract with the architect.
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 due 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.
Since the referendum, the building committee has been making strides to prepare for an April 2018 anticipated construction start. However, despite having owners project manager (OPM) Colliers International now under contract, the estimated start of construction has now been pushed back slightly to May 1, 2018.
Library Director Beth Crowley said the change in timeline is due to getting all parties involved up to speed and finalizing certain contract negotiations.
“It is just taking longer to get through the contract negotiations than we thought,” she said. “…We hope to have the architect contract done within the next few weeks and get them up and running…The most recent thing Colliers told me is be prepared to hand over the keys to the construction company on May 1.”
With a construction date set for late spring, Crowley said she expects to move the library collections in late March to early April. A portion of the collection will go into storage for the duration of construction, and another portion will be moved to a temporary location. Crowley said she is still in the process of finding a temporary home.
“Based on the sizes of the spaces that are currently available, we would probably have one space that would hold the collections and the computers and maybe most of our services,” she said. “But things like programing, particularly our bigger programs, might have to be done at different sites, so we are hoping for some partnerships with some other town organizations like the senior center or just the town in general. That might be the way we balance.”
While a temporary location won’t be needed any time this year, the building committee is currently working on smoothing out a slight wrinkle with one of the project grants. Prior to the referendum, the library received a grant from the Connecticut State Library. However, when the library applied for the grant, it was not made immediately clear that the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) also needed to sign off on the project design. While Crowley said the state library approved of the plan for the renovation, SHPO has a few concerns.
“They sent two reps down about a month ago. They are not thrilled about the Hull Building and they are not pleased with moving the [former] post office back to the streetscape,” she said.
The current plan for the renovation includes moving the old post office building forward to line up with neighboring buildings on Wall Street and to only use the façade of the Hull Building in the renovated structure. Crowley said moving the post office forward would actually return the building to its original location and the library had decided to only use the façade of the Hull Building due to cost.
“The problem we had with using the Hull Building is that while it is brick on the outside, it is wood on the inside,” she said. “Our architects had a cost estimate done that it would have been about $1.2 million more to take the wood out and put in steel reinforcements because library load weight is 150 pounds per square foot, which is much higher than regular public use.”
While there may be some negotiating with SHPO, Crowley said overall SHPO was pleased with other historic preservation elements of the project and she plans to keep the final build as close to the proposed design as possible.
“My primary objective is to honor what the voters approved in February as best we can based on any of the normal problems that come up within a construction project,” she said.
As plans for the build continue, the library is continuing to fundraise. Before the referendum, library officials established a capital campaign known as “Futures” to cover the $6 million library portion of the project. With a little more than $1 million left to go, library trustees have been reaching out to residents and Crowley said that will continue.
“We have our capital campaign, but we are also right now formulating other ways that people can participate, whether it be something like buy a brick or that kind of program, where smaller amounts of money can be raised and people can contribute to the library,” she said. “That hopefully will be kicking up probably [in] late winter.”