When the Great Neck Library board proposed a $20.8 million expansion of its Main Branch in 2011, thousands of residents voted down the proposal in a landslide. But no such public interest has yet surfaced surrounding the library’s scaled down renovation plan, which is scheduled to be put to a vote in November.
At a public meeting Tuesday – the second of six such meetings scheduled ahead of the vote – architects presented the new $10.4 million plan to a mostly empty community room that contained more library board and committee members than unaffiliated residents.
Residents who attended the meeting and library board President Marietta DiCamillo voiced concern over the lack of turnout ahead of a vote that will affect both the library’s future and residents’ tax bills.
Paul Glicksman, a Great Neck Plaza resident who voted against the 2011 plan for the facility at 159 Bayview Ave., expressed dismay over the sparse audience at the meeting.
“Why did almost nobody come down,” Glicksman said. “I expected to see 30 or 40 or 50 other couples. Does this mean that nobody cares about the library?”
Glicksman spoke favorably of the presentation made by Russell Davidson, president of the architectural firm KG&D, and said he was optimistic that the scaled-down plan was a better choice for the library.
But he was less enthusiastic about his fellow residents who had yet to attend a meeting, saying the library had made genuine efforts to make people aware of the plan.
“They want to complain if they don’t like it, but they don’t want to put any input in,” Glicksman said.
Great Neck resident Jerry Schain also voiced support of the plan and concern about the turnout.
“It was fine as far as I’m concerned,” Schain said. “I can’t believe that so few people showed up.”
The lack of participation is a problem, said DiCamillo, and the library is seeking new ways to engage the public.
“I would be foolish to say to you that this represents a positive sentiment. I think that would be very foolish,” DiCamillo said. “To me I think this was a big problem. I just wish the whole place were full.”
“When we had the failed referendum last time, there was a full house and we have sign in sheets,” DiCamillo said. “So what we’re going to do is call those people and ask them to come down.”
The $10.4 million renovation would increase community space, open the design of the library, condense book storage and update the building’s infrastructure, Davidson said.
The plan – the seventh option prepared by KG&D after months of consultation with the library’s Building Advisory Committee – calls for an expanded diagonal entryway leading past reference and circulation desks to a bay window overlooking Udalls Pond, and includes a mezzanine overlooking the downstairs gallery.
The plan would also feature an larger community room by the main entrance to the building – a shift that Kaeyer said could allow public access to meeting space outside of normal business hours.
The children’s and young adult sections would see expanded floor space, and the children’s books would be moved entirely downstairs. Kaeyer said the new children’s section would feature its own check-out desk and would allow parents with strollers to access the library through the lower level without having to navigate stairs or elevators.
The project’s estimated $10.4 million budget, which library board members said could potentially change in response to public input, includes $4.25 million for infrastructure, $4.1 million for renovations, nearly a half million dollars in new construction and $878,000 in contingency funding.
The planned infrastructure changes include a new roof, new, better insulated windows, a revamp of the building’s HVAC system and new lighting. Davidson termed the project a “complete renovation.”
The construction is expected to result in up to a year’s closure for the Main Branch.
