Library Soliciting Public Input on Renovation, Expansion Plans

The Plainfield Library District’s population has gone up by 50,000 people since 1990, the year construction began on the .

In roughly the same 20-year period, the library’s collection of books, DVDs, CDs and other items has grown by 222 percent, the number of items checked out went up 845 percent and the number of questions answered by the reference desk has skyrocketed by 2,020 percent, library data shows.

In other words, the library is no longer large enough to meet resident demand and officials need direction from the public on how to proceed, Director Julie Milavec said.

Four open forums have been scheduled for this month to solicit input using six proposals as a place to start the conversation, Milavec said.

The first gathering is at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by meetings at 7 p.m. Tuesday, 11 a.m. Sept. 15 and 7 p.m. Sept. 19, all at the library, 15025 S. Illinois St.

“This is just a starting point,” Milavec said. “If you don’t like the options we present, tell us what you do like.”

The six initial options are:

• Expand and renovate the existing library. The existing 27,160-square-foot building can be enlarged up to a maximum of 70,000 square feet.
• Expand and renovate the existing building and lease a 30,000-square-foot building for a branch library.
• Expand and renovate the existing building, buy a lot and build a new 30,000-square-foot branch library.
• Build a new 70,000-square-foot library.
• Build a new library and lease a 30,000-square-foot building for a branch library.
• Build a new library and a new 30,000-square-foot branch library.

“These are just starting points, and we’ll have preliminary cost projections so we can compare apples to apples,” Milavec said.

Although projected dollar amounts weren’t available Thursday, they will be in hand Saturday, broken down by construction cost and operation cost for each option, she said. For example, if residents prefer the concept of leasing branch space, the annual rent must be added to the price for overhead and salaries, she said.

The other thing residents have to consider, Milavec said, is the growing expense of operating the existing library. There have been numerous repairs made to the heating and air-conditioning systems and the elevator, and the wood frame windows, which were never sealed properly, are beginning to rot, she said.

Once library officials have a handle on what the public likes and does not like in terms of the alternatives, a community task force will be formed to “refine” the options and make a recommendation to the library board.

The task force recommendation will also be presented to the public in a series of open forums to be held next summer.

All of this is leading to a referendum in which voters will be asked to raise taxes to pay for the new and/or expanded buildings – assuming the public supports the idea that more space is needed. The soonest it would go on the ballot would be fall 2012 or spring 2013, Milavec said.

The last referendum question to expand the library was posed in 2009. The request for a $30 million tax increase to expand and renovate the existing library and build a new 30,000-square-foot addition failed.

The existing building, which opened in 1991, was funded with $1.9 million from a tax referendum and $1.5 million from the sale of a farm that was bequeathed to the library district, Milavec said. There was not enough money to finish the lower level until 1996, she said.

Prior to the existing building, the library had been housed in a 2,700-square-foot frame building that was built in 1941, she said.