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Main branch of Schenectady library to close for 18 months
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
By Kathleen Moore (Contact)
Gazette Reporter


SCHENECTADY — The main branch of the Schenectady County library system will be closed for 18 months during an expansion project, a library trustee said.

John Karl said no one knew that the library would be closed until clerk of the works Anthony Ward took a look at the plans two weeks ago.

“He said this design would not be practical to achieve without closing the library for 18 months,” Karl said. “When he saw the plans, he said, ‘We can’t keep it open.’”

County Legislator Karen Johnson confirmed the library will have to be closed, although she declined to say how long the closure would last. That won’t be announced until the county has come up with a solution, she said.

“None of us saw this coming,” she added, “but we should have. We’re talking about HVAC, electricity. ... There will be times the building will be without electricity.”

Karl said the project simply cannot go forward with such a long closure.

“Closing the library for that period of time would be unacceptable,” he said.

But he and others seem to have reconciled themselves to the fact and are looking for ways to minimize the effects of the closure.

“The branches are not suitable to absorb much at all of our programs and services,” Karl said.

So the Friends of the Library and library staff met Tuesday night to discuss temporary library sites downtown.

“We were offered the top floor of the Carl Company building from Proctors,” Karl said.

He added that the county estimates it would cost $500,000 to make that space usable, particularly with Internet access, which is one of the library’s most popular services.

Karl said the group also discussed using the Annie Schaffer Senior Center, which has been closed for four years and might need substantial work.

“We’re trying to keep the services downtown,” he said. “A majority of the people who access our library are people who live in and around the area. Many of them come on foot. That’s a big concern — we have 1,400 people a day, what are you going to do with them?”

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“We were offered the top floor of the Carl Company building from Proctors,” Karl said.

He added that the county estimates it would cost $500,000 to make that space usable, particularly with Internet access, which is one of the library’s most popular services.

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SCHENECTADY
Library to shut during project Trustees: Closure will make expansion quicker, cheaper
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter

    The main branch of the Schenectady County library system will be closed for 18 months during the expansion project, library trustees said Wednesday.
    In a vote April 24, the trustees agreed to shut down the bustling library because the project could be done more quickly and would cost much less with the building closed. The building could be closed as early as June, although some county legislators have discussed delaying the entire project because of its cost.
    The project would take a year longer if the library were kept open, Board of Trustees President Esther Swanker said. It would also cost an additional $1 million to $1.5 million on top of the original $7.7 million budget, she said.
“It would be much more expensive and much more time-consuming,” she said. The trustees also decided it would be too expensive to move some library resources to a temporary location that could be used by library patrons during the project. One option was to spend $500,000 turning the top floor of the Carl Company Building into a library. “That’s not a wise expenditure,” Swanker said. “We have nine branches. This is an excellent chance to put them to very good use.” But not all the trustees are happy with the decisions. Trustee John Karl said the project simply cannot go forward with such a long closure. “Closing the library for that period of time would be unacceptable,” he said. Karl said no one knew that the library would be closed until the clerk of the works, Anthony Ward, took a look at the plans two weeks ago. “He said this design would not be practical to achieve without closing the library for 18 months,” Karl said. “When he saw the plans, he said, ‘We can’t keep it open.’ ” The news came as a shock to trustees and county legislators. “None of us saw this coming,” County Legislator Karen Johnson said. “But we should have. We’re talking about HVAC, electricity … there will be times the building will be without electricity.” Legislator Vincent DiCerbo added that although he had no idea the project would require such a long closure, the work must be done. “HVAC, electricity — that absolutely has to be done. For 30 years the county skimped on maintenance,” he said. “If the library has to be closed, I don’t see we have any other choice.”
    Staffers will be able to get into the building during construction, so Swanker envisions an interlibrary loan system that would allow residents to request main branch books and receive them days later at one of the other branches. The same system could work for the main branch’s large collection of audio books, videos and DVDs. Staffers are designing the operations plan now, Swanker said.
    But Karl and others aren’t ready to give up yet.
    “The branches are not suitable to absorb much at all of our programs and services,” Karl said.
    So the Friends of the Library and library staff met Tuesday night to discuss temporary library sites downtown. County Legislator Gary Hughes, chairman of the Committee on Libraries and Education, said he’s hoping sites could provide Internet access and meeting space for the many programs the library offers each week.
    The semiannual Friends of the Library book sale may be moved to City Hall, he said. Among the other sites discussed were the Carl Company Building, which could be used at much less cost if it isn’t turned into a full-fledged library, and the Annie Schaffer Senior Center, which has been closed for four years and might need substantial work.
    Karl said “We’re trying to keep the services downtown. A majority of the people who access our library are people who live in and around the areas. Many of them come on foot. That’s a big concern — we have 1,400 people a day. What are you going to do with them?”
    Hughes later said that 10 percent of the patrons at the main branch come from the 12305 ZIP code, the immediate area of the library, while 90 percent come from areas also served by branches. The majority drive when visiting the main branch.
    Hughes wants to find downtown sites for the library’s popular lunchtime, evening and weekend programs, but emphasized that he doesn’t support opening the library during the construction.
    “I can’t emphasize strongly enough that it’s for the safety of the patrons,” he said. “This will be an active construction site. The asbestos, turning the power on and off … it really would not be a safe location.”
    The project went out to bid this week, Karl said. County officials had previously announced that construction could begin as early as June if the project gets reasonable bids.
    The price tag is expected to be $7.7 million, but the county faces a budget shortfall of at least $5 million in 2009. Legislators are seeking ways to reduce costs and increase revenues without resorting to tax increases; some have discussed delaying the start of several major construction projects, such as the library expansion, as a way to reduce costs next year. There is also talk about closing library branches and reducing nonmandated services.
    The county Legislature would provide $5.7 million toward the project, paid through bonds. The library board and Friends of the Library have raised about $2 million in private donations since the project was announced four years ago.

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EDITORIALS
Library plan: back to the drawing board

    It’s almost impossible to believe that until a few weeks ago, no one involved with the Schenectady County Library expansion project — which has been in the works for years — had the slightest inkling it would require shutting the library down for 18 months during construction. Yet that apparently is the case, and the library’s board of trustees has already agreed to the plan and is soliciting construction bids. It is such a bad idea that trustees should instead scale it back, or the county Legislature should reconsider its sizable financial commitment.
    This page has supported the ambitious expansion plan all along: The library is good enough and popular enough (attracting 1,400 visitors per day) that it merits the considerable cost of a firstclass renovation. But not if the renovation means closing for such an extended period of time.
    While the library system maintains nine satellite branches, there is no way they could come close to picking up the slack. The branches simply don’t have the books and other materials, or the room for the library’s voluminous number of programs. And while it would be possible to shuttle some of the materials back and forth from the main to the branches during a shutdown, it would be such a cumbersome and inconvenient process that a good number of library patrons would probably just say “the heck with it.” Eighteen months is a long time!
    Given the high cost of the plan — $7.7 million, of which $5.7 million would be furnished by the county — combined with the county’s current economic difficulties and the soaring cost of construction materials, it would probably make more sense to scale back. Yes, the building’s heating and air-conditioning systems need to be replaced, but does the library really need a new theater when the McChesney Room it would replace is almost as large? (Leaving the McChesney intact would also preserve the library’s nicest architectural feature.) Couldn’t the children’s section be built off the east side of the building (as originally proposed), toward the police station? That would give it more space and cause less disruption. As for the coffee bar, it may not be inappropriate, but it sure seems like a nonessential luxury.
    Because of its financial situation, the county Legislature had recently been thinking about delaying the project a year. That seems like an excellent idea now, because it would give everyone time to modify the proposal, eliminating the frills and the need for a lengthy closure.

Quoted from bumblethru

Well, if the library can be closed for 18 months, than perhaps it isn't needed at all.

Quoted from 147

I think we should put more computers into schools, that's where education is centered.  

I also think rather than putting 7.x million into a library makeover, spend that 7 million to put a computer into every students home - you'd only spend half as much.

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VIEWPOINT
18-month library shutdown a major disservice
BY PHIL SHEEHAN For The Sunday Gazette

    An open letter to the trustees of the Schenectady County Public Library:
    With all due respect, ladies and gentleman, have you lost your minds? You want to shut down the main branch of the library for a year and a half, and with only one month’s notice?
    Stop and think a moment, something you apparently failed to do earlier, when the current problems might have been avoided, or minimized. We are not talking about a drugstore or a gas station, whose regular customers need travel only an extra block or two for aspirin and oil. We are talking about the public library, the hub of cultural life — and for many people, social life — in the center of the city.
    You report that traffic (a mean, impersonal term for “people who want to read books or listen to music”) at the main branch is 1,400 a day. Can we afford to turn away that many people, people who are, and I’m choosing my words carefully, people who are the lifeblood of the city?
DON’T WORRY? NO, WORRY
    You may not like the metaphor, but it’s an apt one. What happens to the body when you diminish the flow of blood for a year and a half?
    Your answer, according to the article in Thursday’s Gazette, is “Don’t worry. Only 10 percent of those 1,400 come from the 12305 ZIP code.” The implication is that only 140 people a day will be shut out of the library.
    To which I reply, in the euphemism of my sainted mother, who almost always used the barnyard phrase itself, “Bushwah.”
    First of all, it’s a mistake bordering on criminality to summarily dismiss even 140 people a day. In addition to people stopping to borrow a book, that 140 will include young children learning to appreciate books and music and storytelling; it will include school-age children being tutored in difficult subjects or being helped to finish complex projects; it will include seniors who come to read the papers or to meet with friends. These are all vital functions of a center-city library.
    But 140 is a bogus statistic. Unless you have someone checking each patron’s home address — a thing that has never happened in the hundred or more times I’ve been in the main branch — you cannot know where all your visitors come from. So either you count the cards that are used that day, or you count the total number of cards you’ve issued.
    If it’s the cards used that day, you are ignoring everyone who does not use a card, or does not have a card. Those are likely to be people who live nearby, who can stop in every day, who don’t need to take materials out. Or those who — living nearby — use the library as a social center more than a cultural center.
CULTURAL MAGNET
    And please, please, do not underestimate the library’s value as a social center. It will speak very badly of you.
    If the statistic is based on the dis- tribution of all cards, it ignores two more important points:
    Those who live nearby are the ones most likely to visit the main branch.
    Those who come from farther away, who did not go to their nearby branch of the library, did so because there was something in the main branch they could not get at the local branch.
    In short, all of the 1,400 who come in on any given day are there because they want something they cannot get elsewhere. So stop with the “10 percent” bushwah.
    A final point to answer other objections: Even if every one of those 1,400 people came to the library from another county, think what that would mean. It’s 1,400 people who are visiting, using, appreciating Schenectady’s center city every day.
    You ought to be doing everything in your power to keep those 1,400, and more, coming into the city daily.
    And as long as I’m wound up, here’s another charge for you to answer.
    Neither the trustees nor, apparently, anyone else, knew until two weeks ago that this project — in the works for how long? — would require that the library be closed.
    What does it say about the wisdom, foresight and overall competence of the board that no one bothered until now to investigate that aspect of the project? To set this whole thing in motion, and never once bother to find out how much it would interfere with normal operation of the library suggests — in the most generous interpretation I can devise — that you are spectacularly naive.
    So, what basis is there for us to trust your judgment about the best way to continue this project? The president of the board says the library must be closed for 18 months. Otherwise, it will take a year longer and cost a million dollars more.
    Really? In your already-established naivete, you perhaps do not understand the numbers in a public works project. The $7.7 million cost, and the 18-month deadline, are fi gments of a combined imagination. They represent a compromise between what the planners assume it ought to cost, and what the trustees think the taxpayers will tolerate.
    One more factor: These are numbers that have yet to be reconciled with the reality of contractors’ bids, or the even more brutal reality of final bills.
DELAYS, HIGHER COST
LIKELY
    Allow me a prediction, one which I will be overjoyed to see proven wrong. The project will not be completed in 18 months, and the cost will exceed $7.7 million. The overage on both numbers will be at least 25 percent.
    Look again at one of the alternatives you considered: Spend half a million dollars to convert nearby empty space into a temporary library.
    “Not a wise expenditure,” says the board president.
    Wrong. It looks very good right now, and will look downright brilliant two years from now, when the expansion project still is not complete.
    And finally, it is disingenuous at best to use arbitrary numbers — rather than concern for the public good — to decide to close the library. As I said before, this is not a gas station or a drug store.
    It’s a center of learning, a cultural beacon, a gathering spot for a wide variety of valuable and even necessary activities. It’s a magnet for the center city area.
    You close it at our peril.