‘Historic moment, years in the making’
Funds for New Canaan library approved
Teary eyes, hugs and thunderous applause were the reactions from proponents of the $38.5 million new library Wednesday after Town Council approved the $10 million grant and accepted the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Not everyone was celebrating, as Town Councilman Penny Young made a motion to postpone the votes, raising concerns about the town’s liability. Her motion failed. Motions for a new MOU and the $10 million town grant both passed 10 -2. Young and Cristina Aguirre-Ross abstained.
“This is obviously a very big win for our community, we are going to get a fabulous library,” Chairman John Engel said.
Young wanted to postpone the vote because the council had not had time to discuss the credit line, changes to the MOU and funding to preserve the memory of the 1913 library. Her motion failed 9-3, with Young, Maria Naughton and Cristina Aguirre-Ross voting in favor of it.
“We all have bent over backwards to accommodate the library,” Young said.
Postponing the decision may have been bad news for library officials, after Paul Stone told the Board of Finance two weeks earlier “the longer this delays the greater the risk of this falling apart, that is not theoretical it is a real threat.” Stone is consultant to the library and COO for Karp Associates.
Library officials had wanted to start the new 42,642 square-foot building in June, but the timetable was pushed back after the Planning and Zoning Commission met eight times prior to making the decision, in efforts to address concerns of preservationists who wanted to save the 1913 library.
Preservation
Young asked about the “parameters” the library had given Centerbrook Architects to save the 1913 library and what impact it may have on the taxpayers.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved a resolution in July that requires the library come back in December with plans to preserve portions of the neo-Palladian Colonial Revival 1913 library.
Young said the town had given the library $475,000 toward a property acquisition and use of town land for parking, and “I hope in return there would be a substantial amount of respect to the history and character of our town.”
The preserved structure would be around 1,300 square feet, New Canaan Library Executive Director Lisa Oldham estimated. This is more than the library had previously offered when it showed the Planning and Zoning Commissions ideas to remember the library, and plans for a small pavilion.
The commission’s decision states that “elements of the original building that predate 1937 will be preserved,” Oldham said. “We think the entire façade is what we heard people care about” and “people want a whole building.”
The MOU says that none of the $10 million grant from the town can be used for the preservation of the historic building, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said.
Town officials “understand” that the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision will involve additional costs and the “Board of Finance has said that there will be a separate MOU and appropriation in the future,” the first selectman said. “The town has said we are going to be part of that.”
The preservationists are expected to help as well, he added.
Oldham said people should not assume the library won’t help fund part of the preservation project. Some of it may be financed the way other efforts in New Canaan are funded with “a miracle of goodwill and good fellowship,” according to the director. The library does not know the cost of the preservation project, she added.
Credit line
Young raised concerns about a line of credit that the town plans to offer the library. The line of credit is not a grant, but rather a loan, to be paid back by the library.
The money will be used “only if there is a shortfall in the rate of which pledged donations are collected versus the rate they actually need the funds to continue with construction,” Board of Finance member Tom Schulte said.
The finance board had assumed that before it gave the $10 million, the funding for the entire project was assured, Finance member Chris Le Bris said. “It is important that the funding to complete this building be in place.”
The loan would enable that assurance. In addition, the town can provide the money at about one quarter of the cost of getting the funds from a bank, he added. The town can issue five-year bond notes for under one percent interest, he said.
Moynihan said bond counsel had told him “most towns extend credit,” or “cash flow financing” in similar situations.
Young said she wanted to see in the library’s bylaws the Town Council member representation on the board of directors. And be sure that “those two seats are in perpetuity, not subject to board amendments.”
That will be put on the library’s agenda for its board of directors.
“This is where we should be. We should be facilitating the construction of the new building,” Councilman Sven Englund said right before the votes were taken.
Most people who spoke at the public hearing before the meeting, agreed and spoke in favor of the library
Three votes were taken. First the motion to delay, which failed. Then the council voted to approve the MOU, which passed 10-2, with Ross and Young abstaining.
Then councilman Steven Karl made the motion to approve $10 million, to be financed by general obligations bonds.
Right before the successful final vote, he said, this is a “historic moment, years in the making.”
He thanked many for the “hours, hours and hours” people worked to get to this point, including the preservationists who are” diligent people who worked hard.”
“These are our friends, our neighbors, our residents” and “we need to figure out a way to have these conversations and not say things or do things we would not do with our own families,” Karl said.