Library repairs center of Town Meeting
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

For the last 10 years, the Westminster Library Board of Trustees has been spending money to fix a variety of problems with the structure of the addition to the library.

In two weeks, the trustees are going to ask voters to approve an estimated $2.5 million to $3 million to completely renovate the exterior of the addition of the building.

"I want voters to know that I, we, appreciate this is a staggering large amount of money and it is passionately our desire that this will get residents the library they expected and deserve and that this is the last time they will hear from us," Trustee Chairman Dana Altobelli said. "The very expense nickeling and dimeing that has gone on for the last 10 years will come to an end."

The building project is going to be a total "refurbishing of the entire exterior of the library," said Altobelli, who is also a member of the building committee.

The library has been having

problems with water seepage from the foundation, the windows and the roof.

The project has the library receiving new windows and window frames, and a new exterior of brick instead of the existing EIFS material. The design also calls for a replacement of the roof with one that is properly vented and uses architectural shingles, which will appear similar to the area of the slate roof. The design also moves the gutters off the walls and improves the drainage around the building.

"All of them are contributing to the library's water problem," said Altobelli.

"This solution is going to be complete and systemic," Altobelli. "We are starting at the foundation and going up to the ridge of the roof."

The proposed project is in the process of being bid for construction companies to propose their prices.

The bids will be open on Wednesday, Feb. 20, and the Trustees, Selectmen and the Advisory Board members are scheduled to meet on Thursday evening to discuss the final costs of the project, the funding mechanisms and other details.

The Special Town Meeting for voters to take up the issue is Tuesday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Westminster Elementary School. The first two articles on the warrant are related to the proposed library construction project.

The first article Selectmen proposed is to cover the cost of the construction project (which will be determined by the lowest valid bid), cost of project manager (who is required by law), a construction contingency amount, as well as associated legal and financial costs, said Murphy.

She said the project will be funded above the Proposition 2 1/2 levy limit, so a town election will also be held for voters to approve that costs. The date of the election has not been set yet, but it is expected to be in early April, Murphy said. State law requires it be held at least 35 days after town meeting.

A joint decision between the Board of Selectmen and the Library Trustees had the construction companies bid the projects before the town appropriated the money for them. The bidders are only going to be asked to hold their decision for another week, said Town Coordinator Karen Murphy.

"The logic is that this town has had a lot of experience with projects that are estimated at one price, and then are priced at a higher cost," Altobelli said. "We are trying to take out some of that uncertainty in the financing part of the project."

The Trustees and other town officials hope this one lump-sum payment will be the end of the money needed to fix the problems.

"Before, we have patched here and patched there," Altobelli said. "It's been piecemeal. It hasn't been comprehensive. We're trying to tackle all the problems all at once, so these project don't morph into each other."

In the past voters have expressed concerns about the issues that have plagued the building nearly since the renovation was completed.

The Library Trustees and the town did get some money from the roofing company's insurance company after citing some of the problems with that part of the project, Altobelli said.

He said the small amount of money they received was not enough to solve the problem, but was used for some of the temporary solutions.

Altobelli said there does not seem to be away to increase the amount of guarantee the town has on a building project. State law say the amount of a warrant a town receives on a public building project is one year for workmanship and three years on materials.

"That is the way the liability laws are written," he said.

The second article that voters will face is to fund the relocation of the library. Altobelli is in the process of negotiating a lease for the library to be housed during renovations in part of the old Simplex- Grinnell/Tyco building.

Altobelli said the costs are still being determined because the library would like to have some wiring work done to allow computer and other electronic access in the area, but the level of what work can be done is still being negotiated with the building's owners.

"From the time we start moving out to the time we start moving in, it will be pretty close to a year," Altobelli said.

Library Director Margaret Howe-Soper said the library's full collection would not make the move to the temporary facility. She said that much of the children's collection would make the move, the DVDs, audiobooks and other audio-visual materials would relocation, as would the core of the reference collection. She said for the fiction collection, most of the newer materials would move and there would be access for the classics and the most recent periodicals.

"We're going to use a lot of interlibrary loan," she said.

Howe-Soper said that the staff would be allowed into the building on occasion to retrieve materials that are necessary.

"There will still be public access for the computers," she added.