Granby Free Public Library

Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee

Background
This committee was charged with looking at the potential capital expenditures facing Granby over the next ten years.  We were asked to accomplish this by using, where possible, past studies of the buildings in Town, updated for current conditions, and informal cost estimates.  The purpose of this study is to give the Town a broad perspective on all the major capital expenditures the Town could resonably expect to be facing within in the next decade. 

We expect that there will be a relatively limited amount of funds tha taxpayers will make available for capital expenditures during this time.  This will not allow Granby to create ideal solutions to the Town's problems.

Furthermore, the sheer monetary cost of potential projects make it clear that the Town will have to find some solutions that in many instances are far from the ideal choices for the problems the Town faces.

Granby Public Library

The Granby Public Library is the municipal facility most in need.  The minimum recommended size for a Public Library for a Town with Granby’s population is 10,500 square feet.  The current library building has 2,500 square feet.  It was built through a Carnegie Grant in 1917 for a population of fewer than 1000 people, with a projected capacity of 5,000 volumes.  The Library building has remained fundamentally the same since 1917.  Today, ninety-three years later, Granby’s population is over 6000, and the same building with the same square footage serves as its Public Library, with a collection of approximately 27,000 volumes.  This insufficient space has had a definite impact on Library services.

The State of Massachusetts has agreed to support Granby in building a new Library with a grant of almost $1 million if Granby were able to include the Library in the secondary school building complex.  That particular plan has recently been rejected by the committee looking at the problems of the School buildings.

However, this indicates to us that the State is aware of the current situation, and that the Board of Library Commissioners has funds to support library construction.  Our estimate is that they would provide approximately a 50% reimbursement for a free-standing library building.  So a $2.0 million investment by the Town could build a library worth almost $4 million.

The Library’s current location at the end of the common does not lend itself to expansion.  The Town does not own enough land there to accommodate a larger building of the required size and provide the required parking.  Informal discussions with an architect have told us that it is very difficult to try to add to a Carnegie Library and have the addition blend into the original architectural design.  Additionally, the land itself, because of ledge, would not be easy to build on.  Those four problems, at least, would have to be overcome before an addition could be considered.  There would certainly be additional costs.

Another possibility has recently arisen.  With the purchase of a building for the Council on Aging, the Aldrich property will soon be available.  If the buildings currently on that property were razed, there could be enough room to locate an appropriately sized Library building and accommodate the necessary parking.

We would recommend that the Town explore locating a new Library building on the Aldrich property.  This could be a near-ideal solution for one of Granby’s larger capital problems.

The full text document of the Report of the Ad Hoc Capital Committee can be found down the page under "Trustee Meeting Minutes." 

Board of Trustees

Trustee Meetings

Held in the lower level of the library.

The next meeting is set for Monday, August 2nd. The group will be meeting promptly at 6:30 p.m.

Meeting Minutes

Trustee meeting minutes archives available upon request.