Plan to close main Schenectady library for 18 months is folly
The Schenectady County Legislature is now seeking bids for a major renovation and expansion of the central library. This is a major step that will impact a large segment of the city’s population and, as the project is presently structured, the near-term impact will be decidedly negative. Without seeking public input, and ignoring the wishes of the Friends of the Library, the Legislature is planning to close down the entire Clinton Street facility for the duration of the 18-month construction project. To those of us familiar with the planning and execution of engineering projects, this is a bizarre idea. One does not close down a vital community service for such a prolonged period just for the convenience of the construction contractor. It should be a precondition of the contract that the facility be kept open and operating with a minimum of disruption while the renovations and expansion are completed. Of course, there will be temporary interruptions and “work-arounds” — that is normal in any such project. But if a competent architect and a responsible contractor are chosen, these interruptions should be days or weeks in duration — not months. To propose otherwise is simply irresponsible. One has to wonder what “hidden agenda” the county Legislature is pursuing in this matter. Serious efforts to expand and modernize the downtown library began more than three years ago. An architectural concept that addressed the library’s needs was presented by the library trustees to the Legislature two years ago. After rejecting this plan, the legislators funded the preparation of a much more expensive plan that involves tearing down the much-used McChesney Room and relocating the library entrance. Granted that the county has responsibility for the library, it appears that they have been more concerned with exercising their authority than they have been with continuing and improving the library’s services. They seem to think that the branch libraries (there are nine) can “pick up the slack” for an 18-month period. Anyone who takes a serious look at the problem will conclude that this is not feasible. The branches are too small, too little parking and are not convenient to the downtown area where the central library draws many of its regular patrons. Space does not allow me to give a detailed accounting of the programs that are carried out every day at the Schenectady County Public Library. Suffice it to say, an average of 1,400 people use the Clinton Street facility every day, and more than 1 million loan items are circulated every year. The programs administered by the library staff and Friends of the Library serve people of all ages and income classes. Needless to say, those in the lowest income brackets will suffer most from the loss of free services that are now available to them at the library. I believe our library system is one of the bright spots in Schenectady County. I hope that the citizens of Schenectady will raise their voices to protect the central heart of this system — and I hope our county legislators will realize the folly of suspending operations at the Clinton Street facility for any prolonged period. EUGENE A. ROWLAND Niskayuna The writer is a member of Friends of Schenectady County Public Library.
Quoted from MobileTerminal: ... I also think rather than putting 7.x million into a library makeover, spend that 7 million to put a computer into every students home - you'd only spend half as much.
MT,
Are you advocating that the government (we) pay for computers for every child in the county? Is that what the role of our government has become?
I'm for increasing the number of computers in the schools if they are used for education and not merely for recreation. The application of these tools must be incorporated into the curriculum. We are certainly paying enough in school taxes that they should be attainable.
To JoAnn's valid point, if students were gifted a computer by the taxpayers, would we then be responsible for internet connectivity, service contracts, computer peripherals, training ... ?
If the plans do include the construction of a performance arts studio and a cafe, they need to be revised. As adaptly stated, the need does not exist for either with the space at Proctor's Theater and Bow Tie Cinemas located only a few short blocks away. Once the Borders Book Store (or some other national chain) comes to downtown State Street, as so many have predicted, there will no doubt be a internet cafe with wireless broadband availability.
Finally, if we consider the lengthy project delays associated with the Big House (er, 411 State Street), Bombers, etc, the 18 month schedule will become years and the preject overruns will mount. Recall that familiar phrase "gut rehab" offered by those who are "familiar with construction" as reasons for delays and cost increases.
The county is awash with debt and a unprecedented budget deficit predicted for 2009. We cannot afford projects such as this at this time and in this economic climate.
The fleecing of Schenectady County taxpayers continues ...
I look books. Computers will never replace books for many of us. Can you curl up with a good "computer" on a rainy afternoon? With garbage on all 78 channels on my TV except PBS and discovery on occasion, books rule. And where would you be if you didn't have any electric power , huh?
Quoted from yarbdoc: ... Can you curl up with a good "computer" on a rainy afternoon?
Computers give off heat. I would elect to curl up with a computer over a book on a cold winter night.
If we didn't have electric power, the computer wouldn't work. But, at night you would have to read by candlelight as Abraham Lincoln reportedly had done.
without power there would be lots of time to read during day light hours.....no TV during the day, no computer, no movies, no radio etc etc.....however there would be considerable time put into making meals and we would all loose some weight too......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Putting Y in Center City as absurd as closing library for 18 months
Two front-page stories in the May 1 issue concerned me deeply: Schenectady County’s main library would close in June or July for at least 18 months, to allow for needed refurbishing and expansion of the facility, and the Capital District YMCA is itching to relocate the Schenectady YMCA to City Center, across from Proctors in the heart of downtown. The library project was launched three years ago, but amazingly, at this late date, the bidding process has not been concluded. Schenectadians remain in the dark as to which firm or firms will undertake the library project. With that question unanswered, it cannot be credibly said that the timetable for completion of the library project is settled. Nor can it be credibly claimed, by any public authority in Schenectady County or any other interest, that no accommodations can be made to ensure that different parts of the main library are worked on by the contractor(s) in ways that will allow it to continue delivering myriad services to a deeply appreciative community. The branch libraries are ill equipped to substitute for the main library in this regard, whether or not the county, facing budget stringencies in 2009, seeks to cope with that problem by, among things, closing library branches and reducing nonmandated services. The gems of public cultural and intellectual life in Schenectady County are the main library and the community college. The community at large would suffer grievously if either of them ceased functioning for any considerable time. From the article, it appears that the primary interests with regard to relocating the Schenectady YMCA to the City Center site are those of the Capital District YMCA, as represented by its president and CEO, J. David Brown, and the Galesi Group, which owns City Center. The article makes no reference to key questions of public policy that ought to weigh in the balance: Is it good public policy to site a large YMCA, which serves diverse program needs, among others, in the strategic middle of a downtown area whose revival is keyed to a mix of cultural, entertainment and smallscale commercial development? Might the public interest be better served by relocating the Schenectady Y somewhere along Erie Boulevard, to upgrade and vitalize that major artery? Or to some area of the city away from downtown, to give impetus, at last, to neighborhood development? ALVIN MAGID Niskayuna
One thing is for sure...this democratic dictatorship that encompasses and controls the entire county does not take into account what the people have to say. Anyone who opposes their views are categorized as trouble makers. And yet they continue to get elected. Guess ya just can't cure stupid, huh?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
SCHENECTADY Library plan draws fire Support group says ‘public against’ closure BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
The Friends of the Schenectady County Public Library are a little less friendly these days toward the Democratic-controlled county Legislature. The library support group has launched an effort to prevent the county from closing the central branch of the library for the next 10-12 months as part of a $7.7 million overhaul. Earlier estimates placed the shutdown at 18 months. Several members of the volunteer group, which raises money for and provides free help to the library system, attended a presentation on the proposal at Monday night’s committee meeting of the Schenectady County Legislature. They were not allowed to speak; the privilege of the floor is reserved for the regular monthly meeting, to be held May 13. However, Friends President Bernard Allanson said after the presentation he has serious concerns about the closure, scheduled to begin this summer. The Friends are concerned about the public’s loss of programming and access to free Internet, the closure’s effect on downtown businesses and the way the Legislature pushed the project through without any public discussion. One volunteer at Monday night’s meeting said leadership in the county Legislature forced library trustees to accept the latest design, otherwise the county would not pay for the work. Eugene A. Rowland, a 30-year member of the Friends, said he believes the Legislature ignored the needs of the library and the public. “About 1,400 people use it each day and it has some services not available at other branches. To me, this is very poor planning. They are saying the easy way is to shut it down and that is how they will do it.” Friends’ member Fred Thompson said the group distributed 1,000 surveys to people attending its book sale Saturday at the central library. People returned 725, and 710 of the respondents said they did not want to see the library closed. Based on this response, “the public is against the closure,” Thompson said. Friends’ member Eleanor Rowland said four years ago the Friends and library trustees came up with a proposal to build an addition between the library and the police station. The project was less expensive and would not have resulted in the closure, she said. Eugene Rowland called the design a no-frills plan that did not change the present entrance of the branch and did not eliminate the McChesney Room, which serves as a public meeting room. “It was a simple design. It was functional and it would have done what we wanted to do for four to five million dollars,” he said. He said library trustees took the plan about two years ago to the Democrat-controlled county Legislature, but the Legislature decided to start over. It hired a new architectural firm at a cost of $455,000 for what was then supposed to be a $4.9-million project. The project was to construct an addition. The project grew to its present cost when a review determined that the building’s operating systems needed to be replaced, that handicapped-accessible bathrooms had to be installed and that the library grounds required extensive landscaping. The project underwent extensive redesigns over the next two years, the most radical occurring in 2007. That was when a committee consisting of county Legislature Chairwoman Susan Savage, D-Niskayuna, Legislator Vincent DiCerbo, DSchenectady, and County Manager Kathleen Rooney balked at the building’s exterior design and at plans to add a second entrance from the rear parking lot. “They came up with a plan that replaces the present entrance, eliminates the McChesney Room and adds a coffee shop that no one thinks we need,” Rowland said. Engberg Anderson Design Partnership of Milwaukee prepared the final design. It calls for the addition of 9,000 square feet to the first floor. While this is less than the originally proposed 15,000-square-foot expansion, the new design contains double the space for the children’s room, a small cafe, a performance center and a private reading room. It also retains the building’s architectural look through the use of brick and precast and poured concrete. The design will remove the protruding semicircular McChesney Room from the library’s Clinton Street side and make the entire wall flush. Library officials will rename another area the McChesney Room. Preservationist group Schenectady Heritage Foundation opposes the demolition of the McChesney Room. It says the library’s current configuration is historically significant architecture that should be preserved. Eleanor Rowland said the design change pushed up the cost. “No one wanted the new entrance, not the Friends, not the trustees,” she said. The closure could become an election issue if Republicans have anything to do about it. Minority Leader Robert Farley, R-Niskayuna, called the project a “case of poor planning.” He said the county “cannot close this library. I will tell you, ladies and gentlemen, your constituents will have your heads.” The potential political fallout of closing the central library could force Democrats to postpone the project for a year or longer, said one Democrat legislator, who did not want to be identified. Project manager Tony Ward said the county learned in March it would have to close the library to complete the project on time and within budget. “There isn’t an inch of this site not affected by the construction,” he said. The interior will be gutted and new heating, lighting, plumbing and air conditioning systems installed. The county will also have to install sprinklers, which were not required 40 years ago, to bring the building up to code. He said public safety would be jeopardized by the level of work, making even limited access impossible. “There would be no place to sit and the most it could accommodate was 100 people a day,” Ward said. Library Director Andy Kulmatiski is developing contingency plans to increase programs and services at the system’s nine branches and other sites downtown should the library close this summer. The current cost of the project is $3.5 million for the addition and $1.6 million for repairs to the library’s aged, mostly original electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The architects factored in $339,000 for site work, $843,413 for new furnishings, a 10 percent inflation cost of $561,504 and $849,406 for professional fees and testing. The final price tag is $404,221 less than the initial design proposed two years ago. The county Legislature will provide $5.7 million toward the project, paid through bonds. The library board and Friends of the Library have raised about $2 million in private donations.
I’m sure this will be one of many letters protesting the imminent closure of the central library in Schenectady [May 1 Gazette]. As a trustee of the library board and a member of the Friends of the Library board, I urge the county to rethink their decision to close the library for reconstruction for up to 18 months. The branches, while numerous, cannot absorb the services and programs provided at the downtown facility. None of the branches has adequate parking. The city branches have no room for programs and the Hamilton Hill branch is not handicap-accessible, not to mention that it is cockroach-infested. The upstairs and basement of Scotia have been declared unsafe. Our clientele needs the access to computers and the Internet, and to tutors who can help with GED and ESL training in a convenient location. Our legislative leaders should ask the librarians and clerks, who work with the people daily, what is essential. Schenectady can’t close for 18 months, or any similar period, the most cost-effective and efficient service in the whole county. I would also urge the public to take back control of this vital service and tell your legislators that they have been grossly mistaken in their underestimation of the people’s attachment to this wonderful gem of a library we have in Schenectady. The question that should be asked is why the county government took over this project and shut off important and constructive input in its development. JOHN KARL Niskayuna
SCHENECTADY Library plan draws fire Support group says ‘public against’ closure BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
One volunteer at Monday night’s meeting said leadership in the county Legislature forced library trustees to accept the latest design, otherwise the county would not pay for the work.
Sounds like the county legislatures are strong arming the public library just like they are strong arming the SCCC music department.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I hope you will all read this very candid, interesting and informative post from David Giacalone's blog regarding the closing of the Schenectady Library:
The more you think about it, the worse library plan is
I saw the May 4 Viewpoint column, “18-month library shutdown a major disservice,” by Phil Sheehan, and I am even more dismayed than I was the other day when I first learned that the library is to be closed for 18 months. And then we are told that there is “no problem” in spreading around the downtown programs to the branches — ha! Then I learned that not only do we lose that lovely entrance walkway colonnade along the present children’s room and McChesney Room, we “gain” a café and a drive-through window. Most emphatically, a café is not needed. Our public library is just that — it’s definitely not supposed to be a Borders or Barnes & Noble. It doesn’t need a drivethrough window; this is a public library — it’s not supposed to be a McDonald’s — duh! The original plan (so many years ago) called for a modest expansion to the east. As I recall, that plan would expand the children’s program area the computer area and upgrade the utilities. This has turned into a nightmare. I guarantee it will take longer than 18 months, and there will be significant cost overrun. This is just what happens on public projects, and the pres ent economy is pushing up the price of ev erything. Schenectady County’s tax dollars are paying for this (the biggest chunk of it anyway) so I can only hope there will be significant outcry against this boondoggle Is there no one brave enough to scream “no way!”? Is there no one on the county board willing to listen? Am I the only one screaming in the wilderness? I don’t think so. Not only was there the piece in the May 4 Opinion sec tion, there was a letter to the editor from [Friends of the Schenectady County Public Library member] Eugene Rowland, “Plan to close main Schenectady library for months is folly”; there was the May 2 Ga zette editorial, “Library plan: back to the drawing board”; and that wonderful car toon accompanying the editorial. RUTH E. BERGERON Schenectady
As a longtime resident of Schenectady County, I have often reconciled my high taxes with the benefits of our main branch library. In the center of town, around the corner from Jay Street, it’s a great place to hang out on a bad weather day, meet a friend, take a grandchild or browse for just the right book, music or movie. Eighteen months with no downtown library. Wasn’t the point of Metroplex to get people back into the heart of the city? NANCY ORTNER Scotia
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