Dear Editor,
I’m a Town of Bethlehem resident and I’ve been looking at the plans for renovating our town library at a cost of $36 million dollars.
The proposal includes a new meeting space that will hold 250 people (up from the current one that holds 100 people), a small expansion of the children’s and teen’s area, enhanced curbside pick up, a staff lounge, a more convenient parking lot, new insulation and geo-thermal heating.
Lost will be the mezzanine, the skylights, the beautiful facade and most of the lovely details of our 1970 award-winning town library.
Under the proposed remodeling project the library will be expanded by 17,000 square feet.
I checked some national averages on the cost to build a new community library in the United States and the “all in “ cost is about $360 per sq. ft. (“All-in” meaning: construction, furniture, finishes, phone/cabling, collection, site work, architect/design costs, engineering, and project management.)
Using national data the cost to build a new 17,000 sq. ft. library would be $6 million dollars.
But we would be paying $36 million dollars, approximately 6 times the cost on a square foot basis of building a new library.
In October the public will have a chance to vote on whether to spend $36 million dollars to remodel the current library.
The project will also entail disruption, debris and noise for up to a year, not to mention potential cost overruns, very common when government is involved.
I’m voting “No”. It’s a waste of taxpayer’s money.
