Library to stay open during work

Board OKs cheapest option

FAYETTEVILLE — The Public Library will remain open during construction of its expansion and renovation.

The board on Monday approved the least expensive of three options. That option will involve periodic, temporary closings of some spaces but will keep the library’s programming and material available to the public.

Another option would have required finding about 17,500 square feet for an offsite library space. Programming would likely be reduced by 80 percent and collections would have been limited to about 50,000 items.

A third option calling for 12,500 square feet of off-site space would have limited collections to about 40,000 items with no holds. The library has about 300,000 items in its collection.

Library administrators evaluated the different scenarios and included cost estimates with each. It will likely cost about $150,000 to stay open with swing spaces, according to the estimates. The figure includes costs for renting space, utilities, labor and other work.

Option No. 2 had a nearly $450,000 price tag, with the third option having an estimated cost of more than $315,000.

Board Member Hershey Garner said the extra cost and reduction in services made the decision obvious.

“If you tell me the staff can keep us here for a half or a third of the price, I think that’s what we ought to do,” he said.

Board Member Maylon Rice asked representatives with the construction manager, Crossland Construction, if moving to a temporary site would speed up the construction process, effectively offsetting the cost of moving.

It would take moving everything — all 300,000 items and every piece of furniture — to have any noticeable effect on the construction timeline, project manager Jason Miller said. Plus, all of the items would have to be stored somewhere, Executive Director David Johnson said.

Staying open during construction will require moving certain departments to other spaces while renovation work is being done. Architect Jack Poling said the library’s configuration will change repeatedly. It will require a lot of patience from the public and staff, he said.

“It’ll be noisy and dusty and inconvenient at times, but also a lot less money to stay in the existing space,” Poling said.

Construction of the 82,500-square-foot expansion should take about 18 months and is scheduled to begin in the spring. The $49.3 million project was made possible through a bond issue voters approved in August 2016.