OK given for renovation design to begin for Niles Public Library

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Updated: March 26, 2012 1:58AM

Niles Public Library trustees gave Director Linda Weiss the go-ahead to begin negotiations with Product Architecture and Design for renovation-design plans during the library-board meeting Jan. 18.

An RFQ (request for quotation) for a construction manager for the renovation plan, which could cost as much as $5 million, has also been sent out.

Representatives of Product Architecture gave a presentation on a revised plan to the Board of Trustees that was about $300,000 to $400,000 less than the previous plan. The plan includes mechanical work, improving the entryway to the library, creating a cafe area, an automatic check-in system and more.

At a Building and Grounds Committee meeting Jan. 11, trustees discussed the renovation plans in detail and took a tour across the library property to see what changes they wanted to make to the plan.

The original plan had staff offices in the lowest level of the building, but trustees decided they wanted staff offices to remain upstairs. Instead, they felt teenagers in high school should be located in the lowest level.

“Teens don’t want to be with little kids,” Trustee Sam Puleo said at the Jan. 11 committee meeting.

With the revised plan, teenagers would have access to a study room, and there would be a service desk on that level. The entire teen collection, including both fiction and nonfiction, would also be on the lower level.

“I think the teens are going to love that space,” Board President Barbara Nakanishi said.

Trustee Morgan Dubiel said his concern was the price of the project, which could cost about $5 million. He said he’d like to have the architecture firm look at creative ways to lower that price, as there is a total of $4.2 million in the special-reserve fund.

Trustee Chris Ball also wanted to take a closer look at the plan to see where cost reductions could possibly be made.

Other trustees disagreed.

“Let’s make a quality library here,” said Trustee Linda Ryan, who insisted trustees should not be nitpicking.

“It already is a quality library,” replied Dubiel, saying he feels the project started with just renovating the entryway to the library and now has become a large-scale, expensive project.

The attorney for the library said that from a legal perspective residents may start to object to the library’s tax rate if they don’t start spending money in their reserves.

Weiss said the renovations to the library were derived from asking patrons what they wanted to see at the library.

“It’s been massaged and tweaked and rearranged,” said Weiss, who supports the plan as presented by Product Architecture on Jan. 18.