Following a June visit by the Rasmuson Foundation, Haines Borough Public Library Board members have decided to think big when it comes to a planned expansion project.
Conceptual plans for the expansion now include a large community room addition to the existing reading room. The addition, about 1,350 square feet and meant to hold about 100 people, would extend northwest off the reading room.
It would also push the wall containing the giant windows overlooking the Haines School track out about another 12 feet.
The board on Monday gave library director Patty Brown the green light to move forward with the concept, which also includes former plans for construction of a teen room/reading area on the south end of the building, and an employee work station on the north end.
Brown estimated the total project would cost about $1.2 million.
When the Rasmuson Foundation board of directors came to Haines in June, assistant library director Rebecca Heaton presented on the former plan, which only included the small north and south additions.
“They really want to see us thinking about 10 years from now,” Brown said. “Their recommendation was that we go bigger.”
Between the existing reading room and the proposed community room addition, the library would be able to accommodate 200 visitors.
Board member Lorrie Dudzik said the expansion isn’t meant to compete with other large venues like the Chilkat Center. “You can have 200 people at the Chilkat Center, but it’s fixed seating. It’s a theater. It’s perfect for all those theater things that we do, but it isn’t a place where you can move the tables around and move the chairs around,” Dudzik said.
Assistant director Heaton said the existing reading room is completely packed seven or eight times a month, with all seats taken and some people sitting on the floor. “That’s not a program drawing people in. That’s just people sitting there,” Heaton said.
According to current statistics, total program and meeting attendance (for library programs, non-library programs and meeting room use) reached more than 11,400 in fiscal year 2015. That’s compared to 10,100 in FY14 and 10,200 in FY13.
Annual visits reached 88,400 people in the last fiscal year, compared to 87,900 in FY14 and 82,800 in FY13.
Between July and August, Brown said, the library topped 800 visitors on six days.
“We’re not just trying to create another space that might be empty,” director Brown said. “We really are trying to respond to the library’s needs.”
Board member James Alborough asked for MRV Architects, the firm responsible for the conceptual design, to provide a 3D sketch of what the expansion would look like. “The harbor, that’s a fiasco, because we can’t see what it’s going to look like,” Alborough said.
MRV Architects also provided Brown with an image of the envisioned parking area, which incorporates the “U”-shaped traffic pattern change recently adopted by the borough. MRV’s image includes additional parking behind the administration building.