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Library to move "off site" to make way for expansion
The Mountain Home Public Library is expected to temporarily close its doors next week in order to move to an "off site" location in preparation for construction of the library expansion project approved by the voters last August.
Originally, the library board of trustees had anticipated being able to remain at the current building while construction of the expansion, which will more than double the current library, was ongoing.
But in order to help speed the construction work, and because of liability concerns raised about the public having to use the library while construction was ongoing, it was decided to move the library, temporarily, to the building on N. 3rd East Street that was the long-time offices of the school district (until it moved last month to new facilities).
That building has been leased by the Western Elmore County Recreation District, for its offices, but the WECRD board has agreed to let the library use the bulk of the facility during the time the library is under construction.
The library will close its doors on March 16 or 17 to begin moving books into the building. Librarian Luise House said the move is expected to last about two weeks, and the library should reopen for business some time between March 26 and March 31. The book drop for returned books will be maintained at the current library building during that time, and then patrons of the library will return books at the library's temporary location downtown.
The temporary location will not be large enough to house the entire library's collection of more than 32,000 books (when the library expansion is completed there will be room for 100,000 books in the new facility).
Instead, the library will move almost all of its juvenile collection, as well as a large part of the adult fiction collection and all of the "new books," to the temporary location. The library will continue to acquire new books while it is using the WECRD offices, which will be placed on the shelves there.
"We're going to continue to purchase new materials and circulate them" House said. "We're still going to expend the book budget. We're not going to fall behind."
A little over one-third of the library's current collection will be available at the temporary location.
The rest of the collection, primarily the reference books and non-fiction collection, will be boxed up and stored until contsruction on the library expansion is complete.
The library also anticipates moving three of its five public-access computers to the temporary location, but not the photocopier.
The Spanish-language collection will be moved to the Elmore County Hispanic Organization offices, where Spanish-language readers can check the books out, and the magazine collection will be moved to the Senior Center.
Due to space constraints, there will be no reading or study areas available at the temporary location downtown. House said the library intended to put as many books as possible on the shelves during the stay at the WECRD offices "and it's going to be tight in there. The challenge was getting the shelves to fit the floor space."
The library intends to continue its many programs, however. The summer reading program, for example, will probably be held in Carl Miller Park this year. Storytime and the Spanish-language storytime for children, "Leyando Mano a Mano," also will continue. Where they will be held will be announced in the near future. "We are not giving up any of our programs," House said.
"Back in August, we didn't have a crystal ball," House said, and the library board and staff had expected to be able to remain in the building during most of the construction, closing off one side while contractors worked on the other. But splitting the work, one side and then the other, would have slowed down construction and probably caused even greater disruption to patrons than the current temporary move would.
Bids on the $1.5 million library expansion project should be let in the next few weeks and, if all things go well, construction could begin as early as the end of April or the first part of May. The construction work is expected to last six to eight months.
The library board decided to approve the move to the temporary location in advance of the anticipated construction start date, in order to give the library staff time to get the temporary facilities up and running, and because there was a limited window of opportunity to be able to use the city employees from the Parks and Recreation Department to help move all the shelves and books. By April, most of those employees would be fully involved in maintaining the city's parks system during its "busy" season.
Sublease arrangements to use the WECRD building were being finalized this week, and the library is expected to pay a nominal fee to sublet the building, plus its share of utilities, while it is at the temporary location. Those funds will come from its existing budget. No money related to the bond issue that financed the construction project will be used for the move.