The main branch of the Great Neck Library came one step closer to renovation Thursday night, as the library’s Board of Trustees accepted a report from the committee tasked with creating guidelines and conducting initial interviews with architects for the project.
The Building Advisory Committee, created in the wake of last year’s failed referendum to fund a $20.8 million expansion of the main branch, established a list of goals for the renovation and created a short list of four architectural firms from which the Board of Trustees will solicit bids.
One of those firms – KG & D, Gallin Beeler Design Studio, H2M and Beatty, Harvey, Coco – will be selected by the board of trustees to design the renovation. The board stated that all four companies have experience with library design.
Among the committee’s recommendations was a space plan prepared by Dattner Architects that would expand the children’s and young adult areas at the main branch by condensing technical services into fewer offices and reducing space in the adult and reference collections.
“I want to thank [Board of Trustees Treasurer] Marietta [DiCamillo] for all her hard work and her diligence in ensuring that it was a consensus that was formulated in this report,” said committee member Ralene Adler. “We all came from many different perspectives after the referendum. It was not an easy task to pull 14 people together to come to an agreement.”
Adler, a former trustee, was active in the Library Watch Dog movement that opposed the Board of Trustees’ expansion referendum last year. The committee included technical professionals and interested residents from Great Neck, library trustees and library staff.
Last year’s referendum, which would have resulted in an 8,600 square foot expansion, accessibility for disabled patrons and a two-year closure of the main branch, was rejected by over 69 percent of voters. The new renovation plan, which is designed to be less expensive and avoid a years-long branch closure, will not feature an expansion.
The report set guidelines for the renovation, including the creation of a budget that would gain community support and avoiding an extended closure of the main branch.
The meeting featured debate over the project’s cost. While the executive summary of the committee’s design meetings with Dattner Architects lists a $10 million budget for the project, the board stated that it would not present architects with a dollar figure prior to soliciting schematics.
That decision attracted heated criticism from Karen Rubin, who is a columnist for the Great Neck News. Rubin asked the board if they would present a fixed budget to the architects before they submitted their bids.
Board and committee members defended their approach as the best way to evaluate the shortlisted design firms.
“I do not want to get into a discussion here about a fictitious number,” said library Trustee Jodie Pizer.
Committee member Stu Hochron argued that the committee was budget-conscious in its selection of the four bidding firms
“One of the major things we asked in the request for proposal was ‘Can you work within a budget, whatever that budget may be?’” said Hochron at the meeting.
“I think that was the right thing to do, simply because we want it to be unbiased,” he added in a follow-up interview. “We want to architects to come in… and look at the things we want to do in the building and indicate to us whether they are capable of the task.”
The board also extended the mandate of the committee to April 2013.
While only the board can make financial decisions, the committee is expected to advise the board through the next phases of the project.
“Whatever board decision comes out of this, you can know that the community’s efforts were clearly for the benefit for the library,” said Adler.
In another issue brought before the board, Margery Binder criticized the trustees for the continued absence of permanent leadership for the library’s reference and programming/publicity departments.
Board of Trustees President Varda Solomon defended the personnel decision, and said that the library was not suffering for lack of permanent department heads.
“It is an interim appointment, but as an interim appointment that person is still performing all the duties and receiving the commensurate salary as she would if it were a permanent appointment,” Solomon said. “The board felt that this was the wise decision.”
But Binder was not satisfied with Solomon’s explanation.
“If it were my children in a public school and they had an acting principal for six months or two years, I would take exception to that too,” she said. “There’s an implication there that some function has not been concluded that is to be expected.”
