September Public Meeting Summary Part III - Questions and Comments

At last here is a summary of the questions and comments portion of the September meeting.  Please note that it is a summary and not a transcription.  Some items have been edited.  Comments are always welcome.

How does the current cost estimate compare to the previous version?

Based on the preliminary cost estimate dated February 17, which was $5.6 million, there is a savings of $1 million.

Will the ceiling height in the town hall meeting room (the former church building) be raised?

Yes, we have funds in the budget to remove the current eight foot ceiling and to repair and restore the existing tin ceiling.  The design allows us to use the whole space, and the building will be returned to its full size with the ceiling at the original 14 foot height.

I think you’ve done a great job on the library, particularly because we can look upon the library as a community center as well as a library.  The fact that the children’s area has been expanded is a great step forward, and a meeting room for local organizations is sorely needed.  The program room will allow the library to put on cultural programs which is a great community service.  Another community service is the computer center, and you have laid that out very nicely.  Also thinking about the children’s section, the town does have a senior center which it shares with Old Lyme, but outside the school, this is Lyme’s only children’s oriented center.  I think that is an asset for any town.  It’s a great plan, though I wish it were larger. But it is still very well done.

Thank you.  Regarding meeting rooms, if you look at both buildings on the site, you go from a six person conference room to a 15, a 70 and to a 100 person meeting room.  If we need more space we can still come here to the school which can hold up to 250.  It gives us flexibility and allows multiple groups to meet at the same time.  Members of the committee and the library went to other towns of similar size and saw their libraries.  What they brought back has been put into this design.

Why should we build a new library when we have a perfectly good building that could be expanded?

We looked at a plan to put an addition on the currently library, but by the time you take it apart and rebuild it, it would cost less for a new building.  The current building is slab-on-grade, so each time you want to do something such as install plumbing or wiring for computers, you have to cut the slab.

Taking the old building down gives us a clean slate.  The proposed building is only around 2500 square feet larger than the current building, but we were able to include so many great features.  One feature is the noise control.  In the current building, noise from the children’s room is a problem.  Right now, when the kids come in, the adults leave. 

What happened to the ball field?

It is still there.  The buildings will be centered around the green space made up by the ball field and the town green.  When you come by, you will see the town hall, the library and the school with this large open green space between the buildings.

I’ve been to libraries where people bring their laptops in.  Will that be available here?

The library currently has wireless, and it will be in the new building as well.

There is the same number of computer stations that you have now.  Is that enough?

There are 4 stations in the adult area, but there would be space to use one of the library’s laptops or to bring your own device.  There are also an additional 3 computers in the children’s room.  At the moment, there are no computers in that area.

How does this design reconcile with the fact that, in very few years books will be a thing of the past? Is this library built for the future?  What research did you do to determine what we need in the year 2020?

We have asked several library consultants about the future, and it is very hard to know where libraries are going.  We have created a building with open space and which is flexible.  Shelving is on wheels, so that it can be moved around.  Some material will never be digital, so there will always be a need for some book storage, but if the number of books decreases and you need more room for computers, the shelves can be swung out and replaced with computers.    We have planned a building adaptable for the future needs.

Why do we need a building when we can get everything at home off the internet?

Libraries have access to computer resources that are not available to you at home, and libraries provide services that you cannot get over the internet.   We have found that, as in for example the new Colchester library, people enjoy coming to a new library to work instead of staying at home alone.  As a previous speaker said, it becomes a community center as well as a library.

Have you been able to project what the operating cost of this new facility will be compared to the current building?

At this point no, but we will be able to do that further down the road.  In the case of the library, one major cost is staff, and the building has been designed so that it can be run without any increase in staff.  It is arranged so that one person can see what is going throughout the library – the front door, the children’s room and the stacks.

Running costs is something our engineers calculate when we get to that point in the project.  The buildings will have geothermal heat, but it is hard to know if there will be savings.  Darien is the only library in Connecticut which has completely geothermal heat, but they are 40,000 square feet. 

The charge that the selectmen gave the committee was to look at the lifetime cost of the building – not only what it will cost to build but also what it will cost to run.  That is why we are going with items such as geothermal heat.

In either of the buildings, has there been provision for equipment for presentations such as large flat screens built into the meeting rooms?

There will be audio visual equipment, but there are no details at this time.  Other libraries in the area, for example, have excellent systems with smart rooms and theater quality sound systems.

This ended the first question and answer period.  Dan Hagan outlined the next steps in the process. 

The committee will meet on the first Thursday in October, and their charge will be to review the conceptual design in light of the information from this meeting.  They will formally approve the conceptual design and turn it over to the selectmen to review and to approve in October or November.  The hope is to come to the town some time before the next budget in May to approve the project.

Once the design is approved by the selectmen, the committee will begin fundraising and they hope to come to the town this spring with some fundraising completed.

In the meantime, the committee will continue to work with the architect to further refine the conceptual design and to continue to find ways to squeeze costs.

This is really two projects.  If the funding doesn’t come in here you want it, will the town have the ability to look at it as two projects?

Our direction is that this is one project and that it will stay one project.  We are going to fund raise for the project, not the town hall or the library.

There may be some people, I heard it expressed tonight, who may not be as happy with the library.  I think everybody agrees with the town hall, but there may be some people who think the library should be scaled down if you don’t make the funding.  There should be some provision for that.

The committee sees this as one project – two buildings on one site.  Furthermore, the Board of Selectmen believes that it should be one project for a whole host of reasons.  They believe that there is a need for both buildings, and there is an economy of scale in construction.  We would be doing the taxpayers a huge disservice if we try to do it incrementally.   One project makes sense in terms of the long term objectives for the town and in terms of financing.

I want to thanks Bruce, Dan and the committee.  I really feel that this joint project is going to enhance our lives in Lyme.  This is a community that cares about its citizens; this is a community that cares about education;, and this is a community that wants to give its people, to the best of our ability, the kind of services we all look forward to and enjoy.  As you all know, Lyme was named the best small town in 2010 by Connecticut Magazine.  We were lucky at the time to receive that distinction, because we had an inadequate town hall and an inadequate library.  This project is a wonderful way to bring us up to where I think Lyme should be.

What is the projected cost to the citizens, and what is the target for fundraising?

There is going to be a subcommittee of the existing project committee that will focus on fundraising.  The committee is being formed now.  The present goal is to raise $1 million or more.  The $1 million is a doable number, but we would like to raise more.  

It is the consensus of the Board of Selectmen that, even if the funding is approved in a town referendum, we will not proceed with construction until we have met our fundraising goal.  We do not want to come back to the town sometime in the future because we came up short.

How will it affect the mil rate?

It is still a little early to come up with a real number, but we did speak to Bank of America.  If we were to issue a note for the current preliminary costs less the $1 million for fundraising right now, the interest rate would be 1.88%.  On a mil rate basis, that would mean ½ mil over 15 years.  Of course interest rates may change, and the Finance Committee would have the final say in how the note was structured.

Can we expect any money from the state?

There had been library construction grants from the state, however, since the fiscal crisis, this program has been put on hold.  We will be prepared, however, to submit an application in case it is reinstated.  There is also a possibility that Lyme will qualify for a small cities grant.

At the last meeting we discussed that there may be some money for the geothermal heat.  Do these grants still exist?

Yes, there is the possibility of energy grants from the state, Northeast Utilities, and other sources.  It is too early to apply, but we will pursue this source.

Will the information be available to us?

The design drawings will be available at the town hall and the library.  They will also be available through the town website, the library website, and the project blog.

At this point, selectman Steve Mattson made one last comment.  He wanted to add another reason why it made sense to build a new library rather than renovate the old one.  He pointed out that one of the biggest potential problems is how to run a town hall and a library during construction.  By building a new library, both institutions could continue to operate during the construction of the new building.  Once the library moved, the town hall could move into the old library building until the town hall renovation is finished.  Finally the old library could be torn down.  The process would be less disruptive and it would save in soft costs.