By Scott Smith
After almost seven years of trying, the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library Board came together Tuesday to approve a “new” Main Library.
Not new, perhaps, in some of the bricks and mortar that cover the exterior of the building, but new in the sense that the interior of the building will be completely transformed.
The $4 million renovation contract was awarded to CPM Construction & Planning Management Inc., Indianapolis, the low bidder.
Three local subcontractors — Davidson Excavating, Russiaville, and Huston Electric and Benchmark Mechanical, both of Kokomo — will work on the project.
“I am thrilled. I am so excited this is being done, and that we’re doing it with money we’ve basically squirreled away over the years,” library board president Susan Luttrell said.
“There weren’t any high fives after the [board] meeting. We’ve worked on this so long and so hard we were all just relieved,” she said. “I think when the public walks in this library, they’re going to see a brand new library.”
The renovation will roughly double the amount of space open to public use at the Main Library, 220 N. Union St.
The east entrance off the rear parking lot, now only used by library staffers, will become the new main entrance to the building, complete with a canopy for drop-offs. The current main entrance, on the west side of the library (Union Street) will be replaced by a new entrance on the same side of the building.
The checkout desk will be located in the middle of a new downstairs, lit by a combination of natural light from new, floor-to-ceiling windows on the northwest corner of the building, and glass partitions bordering a central corridor.
The children’s’ collection will be moved to the ground floor, and the computers will be moved from the basement to the second floor. The entire second floor will be ringed by new windows, and a new elevator will sit next to a glass stairwell at the east end of the building.
By rearranging and expanding the departments and opening the interior of the building by removing visual barriers, the interior will have a more expansive, modern feel.
“One of the things we’ve heard from the public is that [the Main Library] is a ‘little brown box,’” Luttrell said. “It has the little, punched windows upstairs. This will really open up the library.”
Built in the late 1960s, the library has never had a major renovation.
The one drawback of the project, however, is cost.
Library board members have set a $4.5 million budget to cover both the Main Library renovation and construction of a new Outreach Building. Nine general contractors bid on the renovation, with CPM’s base bid of $3.52 million the lowest.
Twelve companies bid on the Outreach Building, which some library board members had hoped could be built for much less than the low bid — also turned in by CPM — of $803,000.
When board members decided against cutting out various alternatives in the Main Library renovation — such as a new elevator, a heat recovery chiller system, the glass stairwell and the glass interior partitions — the renovation work ended up around $4 million.
Many of those alternatives are aimed at lowering the Main Library’s energy costs in the long term.
“We thought that if we were going to renovate the building, we’d better do it right,” she said.
Board members decided, Luttrell said, that they couldn’t also complete the Outreach Building without completely exhausting the library’s $4.5 million cash reserve.
The Outreach Building was meant to house two non-public functions that have been based out of the Main Library — the Collection Management and Outreach services. The new building, to be constructed next to the South Branch library, was going to have a bookmobile garage and office space for Collection Management.
In the construction committee report to the board, Luttrell cited financial concerns as the main reason for delaying a decision on the Outreach Building. Declining property tax revenues, caused by the economy and property tax caps, make spending the library’s entire cash balance imprudent, the board concluded.
“The Main Building is a public facility where as the Outreach Building is non-public. It seems logical to address future needs of a public facility before a non-public facility if a choice has to be made,” the committee report states.
Library director Charles Joray said the Main Library will probably close the last week of September or the first week of October. The collection and computer facilities will be moved to a temporary location — most probably the now-vacant Columbian Elementary School — for about a year while the renovation work takes place.
• Scott Smith is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He may be reached at (765) 454-8569 or via e-mail at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com
