Library makes a case for expansion
By Cara Loriz
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The commentary provided by the library representatives centered on the services an expanded library would provide, unavailable in the existing building, and growing usage of the Shelter Island Library. Specific questions (in italics) and answers about the tax burden, alternatives to expansion, the impacts on the operating budget and more follow.
Need for expansion
“The current library served us well for 40 years,” Ms. Robotti said. But she and architect John Tanzi of Beatty, Harvey & Associates explained that a lot of catching up is needed to satisfy not only current and future needs but also to bring the library up to standards established years ago, specifically the Americans with Disabilities Act and modern building safety requirements.
A gentleman in a wheelchair came to the library during the August Art Show and Craft Fair when architects held an open house on the proposed expansion. “He could get into the stacks of books but he could not get out,” Ms. Robotti said, because there was no room to turn his motorized chair around. Mr. Tanzi listed the features needed to bring the library up to ADA standards, including an elevator, wider aisles, wheelchair accessible computer workstations, wheelchair accessibility in the children’s room and in restrooms.
Although not a service the public sees, the staff room used by the three full-time and six part-time employees cannot adequately provide storage space and allow for the physical business of the library — deliveries and processing of books, periodicals and other new media coming into the library all the time.
The expansion accommodates a multi-purpose room downstairs that can host one or two activities at a time without the conflicts currently experienced in the lower level meeting room. The existing meeting space hosts volumes of nonfiction books (which patrons sometimes peruse in the middle of a meeting), provides the only low-traffic reading area in the library and serves as a lobby for the annual book sale; all in one basement room without a ventilation system. The library currently has no “uninterrupted programming space,” Library Director Denise DiPaolo said. The library’s meeting space, unlike some other facilities on the Island, can be booked free of charge by any group, she added.
The library does not offer comfortable user areas now. “It’s like a take-out restaurant,” Ms. DiPaolo said, with patrons calling in or reserving books online, picking them up and leaving. “There’s nothing about this space right now that encourages people to linger,” Ms. Robotti commented. That’s a shame, she said, because it is the only public building on the Island that serves all demographics and the only one open six days per week and in the evening.
“‘If you build it, they will come’ — that’s not the idea,” Ms. Robotti said. It’s more like, “If you build it, they will stay,” she concluded.
Although patrons have more options for self-service online through the Suffolk County PALS systems, that technology does not make libraries obsolete. “With the explosion of information on the Internet, libraries and librarians are more important. People need help to make sense” out of the vast information, Ms. DiPaolo said.
The library currently has no area dedicated to young adult use and little to attract teenagers to the library, as each of the library representatives noted at some point during the discussion.
“Library usage is up across the country as the cost of entertainment grows more expensive,” Ms. Robotti said. Ms. DiPaolo provided statistics on Shelter Island Library usage over the past 10 years showing a 39 percent increase in the number of check-outs and 50 percent more card holders (from 1,237 to 3,775 including 840 children). Library visits are up in part because “most communities don’t have community centers. So many libraries function as a center of the community,” Ms. Robotti said.
The library representatives also discussed the unique features of an Island library. “We don’t have the luxury of some neighboring libraries” like Greenport, Ms. DiPaolo said, that can send patrons down the road to Southold for media or services it can’t immediately provide. And although the library has peak usage in the summer, it offers programs all year round, programs that currently have inadequate space, Ms. Robotti said.
How are the trustees elected? How are they accountable to the taxpayers?
The library has a volunteer board of 12 trustees: Jo-Ann Robotti (president), Howard Brandenstein (president emeritus), Brenda Bergman (vice president), Dorothy Desbonnet (treasurer), Joanne Sherman (secretary), Wade Badger, Joan Bishop, Phyllis Gates, Ellen Gove, Paul Mobius, David Rosenberg and Melina Wein.
Members are “chosen by the board” through a nominating process and serve three-year terms. “This is a working board,” Ms. Robotti said. They are “the first line of getting virtually anything done.” The library contracts custodial, lawn care and snow plowing work but has no staff to maintain the property. The board takes care of the library’s physical needs, including jobs as small as changing a light bulb, according to Ms. Robotti. They also lend their expertise in law, human resource management, public relations and other professional fields to serve the library.
The board is accountable to the taxpayers, Ms. Robotti said, through the annual vote on the library operating budget, scheduled this year for November 8, which is separate from the expansion vote on October 11.
Board meetings are open to the public and listed in the Reporter’s meetings calendar.
How did you determine the size of the expansion?
Architects did an inventory of volumes of books and other media and determined the amount of space needed for them and for components like staff work areas, patron computer workstations, reading areas, program areas and access between aisles. “They took all of their library industry rules of thumb,” Ms. Robotti said. But they came up with a 13,200-square-foot library. “That ain’t gonna work,” Ms. Robotti recalled telling the architects.
Through editing, like removing a dedicated young adult activity room after hearing about progress on the town’s Youth Center, the current plan for a total of 10,900 square feet was determined. The final plan includes several new user areas — a new young adult room with computer workstations, an upstairs program room (for both children and young adults), a periodicals area with armchair seating, a children’s bathroom, a local author’s room, wider aisles and more seating for readers and workstations for computer users in the adult and children’s sections.
The new construction cost of $370 per square foot seems high. Why is that?
Mr. Tanzi responded that most people compare the cost to that of residential construction. They’re not comparable, Mr. Tanzi said, because most homes have no requirements for elevators, sprinkler systems and building management systems. Ms. Robotti added that the structural work unique to libraries is costly. Mr. Tanzi explained that floor loads associated with book stacks are much higher than those in house design. And in order to provide adequate access to computers and media collections — and allow for supervision by the least number of librarians — libraries must be constructed with large, open spans of space that require steel support systems that are more costly than typical house construction.
Public projects are inherently more costly due to state bidding requirements, Ms. Robotti said, adding that $92,000 of the construction costs will go to insurance and bonding of contractors.
Another contrast to residential construction: the library will add a new 59-space parking lot and a landscaped public sidewalk area along Bateman Road.
How did the library measure the need for the new or expanded services?
First by observation, the library leaders said. Ms. DiPaolo described teens coming in and sitting in a corner in between stacks to study in privacy. Seeing two adults together huddled around one patron computer in the children’s area because all others were in use is not uncommon, she added. Ms. Robotti recalled seeing a GED tutor working with students “at one of our shaky tables upstairs” because there was a program downstairs. “It was uncomfortable for them and for others around them.”
Recommendations and complaints have come in over the years through a suggestion box and more recently via email. Approximately 100 Island residents submitted a survey sent out in March for input on the expansion plan.
More recently, Ms. DiPaolo and Ms. Robotti took the expansion plans on tour to community groups like the Women’s Community Club and the Dinner Bell luncheon and gathered feedback.
Would a smaller expansion or renovation of the existing building plus extended hours meet the needs?
The library tried expanding hours on Sundays in the spring of 2006 but “at the time there was very little interest,” Ms. Robotti said. Adding hours would likely require more staff costs, due to Sunday hours demanding a premium, and would raise utility costs, she added. And it wouldn’t address the basic needs — “People come in from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.” Monday through Saturday, when the library user areas are in peak demand, Ms. Robotti said.
Renovating the existing building alone would effectively result in a 25 percent reduction in user space, according to Ms. Robotti and Mr. Tanzi, since any major renovation would require compliance with ADA rules. The increased space needed for accessibility would require shrinking the existing stacks, media, work stations and seating areas.
A smaller expansion would not necessarily represent significant savings. “There’s a certain amount of ‘soft costs’ in this” that are not tied to square footage on a one-to-one basis, Ms. Robotti explained. Almost $1.75 million of the total goes not to brick and mortar but to contingencies, permitting costs, insurance and professional services. Some of those costs are fixed and “paring down the square footage won’t lower them,” she said. While each library is unique, “there is a threshold,” Mr. Tanzi acknowledged, a minimum size below which new construction does not make sense because of the associated costs. There are also industry standards for minimum amounts of space needed for each service area. The proposed expansion “approaches the minimum amount that can be used responsibly,” Mr. Tanzi added.
What risks does the library assume if the existing building is not renovated?
“There are many, many things that have to be done to this library,” Mr. Tanzi said.
The 43-year-old building is generally unventilated and some spaces are unheated, creating mold problems. Parts of the building need asbestos abatement, included in the $500,000 price tag for renovating the existing building. A fire-suppressing sprinkler system would be added. The library still relies on the building’s original boiler for heat. “Every fall we cross our fingers” and hope it will keep working, Ms. Robotti said. Air conditioning is currently provided through several window units.
Why didn’t you launch a private fundraising campaign before going to the taxpayers?
“Our sense was that Islanders were tapped out in terms of fundraising,” Ms. Robotti said. Several donors already came through with major investments in the Center by funding the renovation of the Youth Center at American Legion Hall, she noted. Library fundraising is, however, underway — “every dollar we raise is a dollar we don’t have to finance,” Ms. Robotti said. Donors have the opportunity to dedicate components of the new library, from stacks of books to entire rooms, as memorial gifts.
You’ve described the $4.5 million total used in the proposition as “a worst case scenario.” If the price comes in lower, either through donations or cost savings, how will the taxpayers be relieved from the $422,000 per year levy?
The library board would simply submit a levy of less than $422,000 to the town Receiver of Taxes, Ms. Robotti explained. The voter referendum sets a maximum amount to be levied for 20 years but a lesser amount is allowed.
Explain the impacts of expanding the library on the annual operating budget, estimated at as much as a 30 percent increase.
Ms. Robotti explained that the 30 percent figure was high, possibly projected early in the process when a 13,000-plus square foot library was proposed.
The board is committed to keeping staff numbers as is, she added. The proposed library was designed so that one librarian can supervise several user areas, according to Ms. DiPaolo. The only worker increase planned, Ms. Robotti said, is the custodial work load changing from two mornings per week to four.
Utility costs won’t increase proportionate to the space, Mr. Tanzi said. Energy efficient construction is planned, far superior to that of the existing building, and solar panels are still being considered, although nationally recognized “green” design certification is not included in the $4.5 million. However, the new library will include “green design principles from top to bottom when economically feasible,” Mr. Tanzi said.
With the onset of a national economic crisis that threatens retirement funds, if not jobs, why should residents commit an uncertain income to this project?
“Had we known the economy would go into a tailspin” the board might have changed its path, Ms. Robotti acknowledged. But during an economic crisis, “that’s when they’ll need us the most,” Ms. DiPaolo said, explaining that many citizens turn to libraries as a resource for information on jobs and investments. Ms. Robotti reiterated that the project will not hit tax bills until 2010 — not until a mortgage or other financing is needed to begin construction — and the crisis may have lessened by then.
Ultimately “it is the community’s library,” Mr. Tanzi said. Speaking to a concerned resident during the “open house” session, Ms. Robotti commented, “We would have never gotten to this point if we didn’t have community support.”
