Advocates pushing for new $17M library
With its library 47 years old, Southington is ready for a larger, more modern building designed for the decades ahead, according to a group advocating a “yes” vote on the Nov. 2 referendum.
At the referendum, the town will ask residents if they’re willing to replace the Main Street library for $17 million.
Local parent Joanne Kelleher, director of Early Childhood Collaborative of Southington, recently formed a political action committee to advocate for the project.
It plans to put up lawn signs and is seeking volunteers to staff an information table outside the polls on Election Day as well as to march in the Apple Harvest parade in October carrying “vote yes” signs.
Advocates’ message is that the current building was designed for a smaller community and has become outdated.
Southington had 33,600 residents when the library opened in 1974; the population is now 43,791. It doesn’t fully meet accessibility requirements or fire codes, and doesn’t have enough room for programs and activities, they said.
The children’s and teens’ areas are inadequate, and there’s no way to separate the gathering places for conversations from the quiet study sections, they said.
“The heating, the cooling, the plumbing are in disrepair, the elevator has been inoperative this past year I can’t tell you how many times,” said Terri Lombardi, a former library board member.
“People in this community have been working on this project for years, for over a decade easily,” library Director Kristi Sadowski told the town council at a recent meeting.
The Facebook group Vote Yes for a New Southington Library was established more than a year ago and has more than 600 members.
So far, there is no indication of organized opposition. Before a referendum in May on buying development rights at the Southington Country Club, several opponents warned that the $4.5 million purchase might make it impossible to pass a library referendum. However, taxpayers approved that acquisition by a better than 3-to-1 ratio.
Big-ticket referendums in central Connecticut have fared well in 2021; Simsbury voters in May overwhelming approved the $36.8 million reconstruction of Latimer Lane School and the $2.5 million purchase of the Meadowood property, and Farmington voters in June easily authorized $135 million for a new high school.
Supporters of the Nov. 2 initiative want Southington to issue bonds to pay for it; that would add more than $4 million in interest, but spread the cost over 20 years.
If the referendum passes, the average homeowner would pay an additional $55.43 in property taxes for the first year; that figure would drop over the next 20 years as interest payments are gradually phased out.
The plan is to demolish the existing library and replace it with a two-story addition. Details about the proposed building are at tinyurl.com/vyxz2cdm.