Woodstock’s public library gave a sneak peak of the new facilities this past weekend. The library hopes to open its new digs on September 6.
What once was Miller/Howard Investments headquarters on Dixon Avenue in Bearsville will house a larger children’s room, a full bank of computers for public use, a 3D printing station, and more restrooms.
“Our current library has one bathroom,” said library board secretary Marcia Patten. “We’ll have six bathrooms.”
A large and partially unexpected expense was the sprinkler system and associated equipment required because the building was now for public use and will store books.
“When we put the sprinkler system in, we found out we didn’t have enough water pressure coming in from the street,” Patten explained. “So then we had to make a special room, which is over there [pointing], which you’ll never see, and it has a fire pump to get enough water pressure. And once this is all sealed up, hopefully we’ll never have to use them and you’ll never see them again. That’s one of the most expensive things.”
Expanding the community
Trustee Howard Kagan, also an architect, pointed out two large emergency generators that will allow the new library to be a warming and cooling center. Fiber-optic cable runs throughout the building, so once Archtop Fiber comes through town the building will be ready for higher-capacity Internet connections.
There’ll be a relatively soundproof hangout room with lounge furniture. Also featured is an elevator, the first in Woodstock for a building accessible to the general public.
Due to the weight of book stacks, the second floor had to be reinforced to take a load of 150 pounds per square inch. Upstairs are the director’s office, several meeting rooms that can be reserved for public use, a maker space, a room that holds about 50 people, and a kitchenette.
There’ll be a special room will be for book archives.
“We think that once people know that it’s here and once we’re open we think there’ll be a lot more use,” Kagan said. “You won’t smell mold when you walk in. There’ll be a lot more space to move around, to sit and read. And hopefully we’ll expand our community. I think that’s a good thing.”
More work to be done
Library director Ivy Gocker said the cost of the fire pump alone was $250,000, not including installation.
“Of course, the building was going to have a sprinkler system, but it wasn’t understood until after we had purchased it and worked with the engineers, was that the local water pressure wasn’t strong enough to support the sprinkler system. So we had to get a fire pump,” she said. “There was a lot of back and forth about, ‘Do we have to do this for real?’ and ‘Are there
workarounds?’ So that ate up some time, and ultimately we had to buy the fire pump.”
Interior demolition also presented challenges, she said.
“There was more work that we had to do structurally to make sure that the building would be future-proof and be able to hold library collections.”
The building started off as one structure. An addition was built on and a porch added, adding “layers of complication,” Gocker said.
Another million bucks
With the Trump administration came threats of financial cuts. The library may lose a $250,000 grant.
“We’re about 85 percent of the way there,” Gocker said about fundraising. “We are trying to raise another $300,000 before the end of the project, because beyond the hard construction costs there’s signage, furnishings, site work that has to happen to make the place ADA-compliant. So we’re still trying to close that final gap.”
The building purchase and renovations were funded through a $3.95-million bond, but extra expenses have added to the tab. The library has raised almost $1 million in donations and state grants.
Miller/Howard left a lot of furniture, which is in two storage containers on site, and will be repurposed with the new building. The library has hired a moving company to transport its books. It’ll save money by getting volunteers to load books on carts for the movers and unload them in Bearsville.
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