With a completion date for a new Crozet library nowhere to be found in Albemarle County’s five-year financial plan, some officials hope the library can be financed sooner than expected with grants and donations.
A team of library officials, county supervisors and county staff members is recommending that the Board of Supervisors front as much as $292,000 for the completion of library design and construction drawings.
“They’re really trying to get this project, to use the current term, shovel ready,” said John Halliday, director of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.
Finalizing project plans, and readying the library for contract bids, increases the likelihood of the county receiving donations and grants, Supervisor Duane Snow noted, adding that there are people interested in donating.
“But they can’t donate to something when they don’t know what is, what all is involved and whether or not it’s just a pipe dream,” Snow said.
A fundraising committee had set a goal of raising about $1.6 million, Halliday said, and though the committee has collected about a tenth of that money, the fundraising campaign has become stagnate because the committee has not been able to tell potential donors when the library might be built or precisely what it would look like.
Many government grants are also contingent upon the feasibility of a project being built immediately.
Halliday said he’s seen more urgency from local officials who have concerns about the adequacy of the existing Crozet library.
A report released during the summer recommended officials consider closing the Crozet library because of safety concerns tied to overcrowding, inadequate access for disabled people and insufficient parking, among other problems.
Some of the county’s recent infrastructure projects have cost the county less than originally anticipated, because the dire economy has caused business-hungry companies to lower prices.
Getting the new Crozet library project in a bid-ready state could help the county hone in on a more realistic cost estimate, too, Halliday said.
The county had initially projected that a new, 18,300-square-foot library off Crozet Avenue in downtown Crozet would cost about $9.8 million, a cost estimate that is now outdated and seemingly far too high.
The existing library is 1,700 square feet.
Halliday believes the public’s use has outgrown the building, what with the former train depot being smaller than many houses in Albemarle yet receiving about 9,000 visits per month.
The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the library project during its meeting Wednesday.
“There are other things that are a lot more important, as far as CIP dollars, than the library, but if we can get it shovel ready, and then go out and look for grants and look for private donations and make it happen sooner, then we’ll do it,” Snow said.
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