Belleville Area District Library sets special meeting for Tuesday, Nov. 24

The Belleville Area District Library Board has set a special board meeting for 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 24, to discuss what officials at the city of Belleville think of options for upgrading the present library or building a new library downtown.
At the board’s regular meeting on Nov. 10, architect Dan Whisler said a meeting with city officials was set for Nov. 13. The library representatives were to be asking the city about the possibility of closing Fourth Street as part of the building plan.
The Dec. 8 regular meeting will have bond counsel discussing options for bonds, so the board decided a special meeting was necessary to keep plans moving along.
At the Nov. 10 meeting, architect Whisler presented three library options, A, B and C, all two-story plans. All required the plot of land next door at 360 Charles Street owned by Belynda Domas of H&B Bookkeeping & Tax Service.
Domas was present at the meeting and said the Kroger project, Shops at Bellevillle LLC, optioned to buy her property for $215,000, and then in 2008 the whole thing fell through. She said in July 2013 she signed an option with the library to buy her building for $275,000 and that fell through.
“I do want to sell my building,” Domas said, adding she was told it was worth $180,000 to $200,000. She said she would sell it to the library for $200,000.
She said there is a cost to relocate her business and she is reluctant to improve the building.
“I don’t want to hold up the deal,” she said. “I’d like the library to make a decision and go through with it.”
She said the property is .32 acre, with 83.5’ frontage and 165’ deep. The building is 2,000 square feet.
In all three options, that property is used for parking.
No comments were made on her offer.
Architect Whisler said the original library plans, when it was to be a new building on the DNR lakeside property, called for 48,000 square feet. It was reduced to 45,000 square feet for the election, but the plans never pared down. Now, it is being reduced to 30,000 square feet. In bringing the plans from 48,000 square feet to 30,000, they are cutting a third of the space out of the plans.
Board secretary Joy Cichewicz, who also is building committee chairperson, said the city’s zoning ordinance requires a two-story building.
Whisler said a reference in the ordinance says you can expand an existing one-story building and they won’t force you to do a two-story.
Cichewicz said the city wants greater density and a more active downtown.
Library Director Mary Jo Suchy and Deputy Director Hilary Savage have been working on cutting the building space down to 30,000 square feet and Whisler said the cutting has been painful. He said the 30,000 square feet is “where we go from here.”
As for computers, there are 19 now at the library and in the new version there would be 36 computers – 6 in the teen area, 8 in the youth area, and 22 for adults.
Whisler said after a former meeting with the city he found there was “a mandate or preference” for a two-story building.
Option A grows the present library to the east with a two-story addition. This option would require the H&B property as well as Main Street Computers (the former post office) for parking. Staff parking would be at the current entrance. A new front door entrance would be on Charles Street.
Whisler said the shape would be a rectangle box 15’ away from the existing building. He said the city wants downtown building to not have pitched roofs, so there has to be a way to handle the water. The city wants lots of glass on the ground floor and narrow, tall windows upstairs, possibly in a Victorian manner. He said the present library is Mid-Century Modern in design and was built in 1953 and 1992.
“We don’t want it to look like we took a 19th century brick building and attached it to Mid-Century Modern building,” Whisler said.
He said the library could continue to be in business while the new addition is being constructed, which would save money. Then they would gut the old building and transform it, put in new boilers, and otherwise “heavy remodel.”
Option B is a two-story addition to the west, which would go all the way to the old Van Buren Township fire hall and require vacating a part of Fourth Street. He said they may need to reroute underground utilities.
Option C is a new building built on Fourth Street and the municipal parking lot with a new entry on an axis to greenspace, with possibly a fountain, on Fourth Street facing Main Street.
Whisler said the library board is going to visit the Dexter Library on Dec. 4 to see a good example of a 30,000 square foot library.
He said the Dexter Library is a block or so off Main Street. It is three stories tall, counting the baseement and 48-50 parking spaces. It is near a river.
In Options B and C the overhead power lines along the alley would need to be put underground, a cost of about $211,000. He said it is “visually important.”
He said they are being as mindful of the cost as they can. He said H&B is the only property that would come off the tax rolls in those options.
He said Option A is the simplest to build, a rectangular box. Option B would cost more to run because there is more skin.
“You might want to digest this,” Whisler said to the board. “And then there’s the meeting with the city.”
He said the next step is to look at a more definite plan and zero in on a strategy. He said they can go east or west and have an addition or a new building. He said A is the least costly, B would cost more to operate, and C requires tearing down the present building, land acquisition, and utility considerations. He said it would be of robust construction and last 50 to 100 years.
He said Options A and B would still be robust, but they would be attached to a building from 1953 and 1992.
“We need to read the tea leaves and see what the communnity will think is acceptable,” Whisler said.
“We have to move rather aggressively and need the extra meeting,” Cichewicz said.
“We need to wrap it up by April or May for an educational campaign,” Whisler said. The board has been aiming for a November 2016 bond vote.
Board member John Juriga said Councilman Tom Fielder likes Option B.
“This could be the first building to emulate the new downtown ordinance, so the city could say, ‘That’s kind of our vision for downtown,’” Whisler said, adding a new building is a chance to start with a clean slate.
Board member Mike Boelter, who said he had a painting job in Dexter in the past and used to spend his lunch hours in the Dexter Library. He said the board should invite the city and two townships to look at the Dexter Library.
“It’s a model, same size, downtown area, and will give people an idea of what we are considering,” Whisler said.