Library update planned
By DENA HARRIS
FOX LAKE—Although nothing was voted on at a joint meeting of the Fox Lake City Council and Library Board, the library will be handicap accessible by September. The meeting was called Wednesday to discuss a plan of action to fulfill the request of a current lawsuit against the library for a lack of handicap accessibility. The deadline for the lawsuit is September 2008. At that time there will need to be handicap accessible parking, entrances and bathrooms. Susan Leahy, director of Kunkel Engineering Group, presented the city council and library board with four plans of action. The estimates were put together with the help of Americans with Disabilities Act specialists. The first was to upgrade the current library building to meet the ADA requirements. This would include providing accessible parking, entrances to the building and restrooms. This proposal is estimated at $38,939 using the existing doors and $48,416 if the doors to the main entrance need to be replaced. The second proposal was for a new structure to be erected. An 8,600-square-foot building would cost $1.61 million including the cost of the land. The third proposal was to add on to the current City Hall building and use part of the existing Community Center. Renovating 1,746 square feet of the Community Center and adding an additional 5,288 square feet would cost about $1.1 million. The driveway and parking would already exist for this proposal. The fourth proposal was for an addition to the existing library. The addition would be 3,200 square feet and the building would need 2,836 square feet of renovations. The cost of this proposal would be about $777,287. The figures for all of the proposals used national listings for the contractors. Costs could be cut by hiring local contractors. "We're going to go on the high side," Leahy said. "You never know what you're going to run into." One topic of interest was the Harriet O'Connell Historical Room. It needs to be environmentally protected for the safety of the documents and artifacts that are stored there. Currently the room is in the basement of the library. The library board would like to see it relocated to a user-friendly and environmentally protective space. Alderman John Mund asked how often the Harriet O'Connell Historical Room was actually used. He wondered if it needed to be a part of the library or if it could be located somewhere else in town. Julie Flemming, head librarian, said the room is used about three times a week during the summer. "People come to use the room fairly often," she said. The room is open during library hours and by appointment if necessary. "You can't turn that room over to a body of volunteers," Flemming said. Before the items were locked in the basement of the library, items from the collection disappeared. Her concern is that the collection is now twice the size it once was and without a paid position monitoring the use of the room, the items would no longer be secure. "It has to somehow be connected to the library," Flemming said. "We would not let the public rifle through the items." Elinor Czarnecki, a library board member, proposed her own design to the city council board. Her drawing was for a different design of an addition to the city hall building. It included a separate space for the Harriet O'Connell Historical Room room. "The double doors and metal doors to the Community Center would be the only changes to the current building," Czarnecki said. Czarnecki anticipates writing grants to help fund the project. "There's a greater chance of obtaining grants if we keep the two projects separate," Czarnecki said referring to the library and Harriet O'Connell Historical Room being funded by different types of grants. "I think this project could happen through grants and fund raising. An addition such as this would add great value to Fox Lake as a whole." "The new building will be hard to sell unless we use non-city funds," Tom Bednarek, alderman, said. He suggested the city work first on the necessary improvements to the building to satisfy the lawsuit and then plan a discussion for creating a new library. "I don't think we should close the door on building later," Tom Bednarek said. "As far as the city's concerned, it will be easier to spend the $12,000 to fix the things we need now," Alderman Dan Alt said. As a long-term plan, the library board unanimously agreed that they would prefer to see an addition to the Community Center than to the existing building. The council encouraged the library board to create a plan. When they are ready, Leahy will meet with the board to create a floor plan, elevation plan and a rendering of the two best sides. According to Leahy the sketches and rendering will cost about $2,500 to $3,000. Bill Petracek, City Administrator said he will reconvene with Mark Ericson of the Department of Civil Rights after the meeting to let him know that progress is being made toward handicap accessibility. The next meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 6.