New library actually estimated to cost $8 million to $10 million

Posted 12/3/19

A new Powell library shouldn’t be as pricey as initial reports suggested.

At a Park County Commission meeting last month, one of the people leading the push for a new facility said it might …

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New library actually estimated to cost $8 million to $10 million

Posted

A new Powell library shouldn’t be as pricey as initial reports suggested.

At a Park County Commission meeting last month, one of the people leading the push for a new facility said it might cost between $18 million and $20 million.

But an apologetic Powell Library Task Force Acting Chairman Pat Stuart says she misspoke, as the actual estimate puts the project in the $8 million to $10 million range.

That’s based on a 21,600 square foot building constructed at a cost of $350 per square foot. Then there’s furnishings, site prep work, landscaping and other costs.

A site has yet to be chosen for the new library, but the task force wants to keep it close to downtown Powell and the middle school.

“Libraries act for business districts rather like anchor stores act in malls. People come for one and add on errands,” Stuart said. “This is the big reason we don’t want to get away from downtown.”

She hopes that land can be acquired for free or at a low cost, “but, of course, that’s probably not realistic,” she said.

One possible location that’s been discussed is the site of the former Powell High School on Evarts Street, which is now a mostly open grassy area and parking lot.

Last week, the Park County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees discussed the proposed location — just north of the district’s Support Services Building — and said it could be a possibility.

This new potential site would keep the Powell library close to the middle school, and the library has “a very high level of service to our middle schoolers,” said Superintendent Jay Curtis.

He said the task force is looking at having a room designated just for middle schoolers in the new library, with programming geared toward that age group.

“Some of the things that they’re talking about, I think could be a tremendous service to our students,” Curtis said.

Middle schoolers often go to the current library after school, and a staff member provides programs for them, said school board trustee Kimberly Condie, who works at the library.

After being in school all day, middle school students “need a place,” Condie said.

“They need space, which is something that we just do not have,” she said.

If the current library on the corner of Third and Clark streets is demolished, school board Chairman Greg Borcher suggested trading the district’s land for the library’s spot.

Borcher also said there would need to be a firm commitment from the Park County Commission before moving forward with an agreement.

“Of course, if it’s way out in the future, we can’t commit a future board to it,” he added.

In 2014, a group of library supporters asked the school board to let them have the land where the old PHS auditorium/pool once stood, but commissioners never formally got behind that request.

Board members noted it’s still early in the discussions, and said they’re simply open to the possibility of having a new library at the old high school site.

“It’s not a decision we have to make tonight obviously,” Curtis said last week.

Whatever the district decides, Stuart isn’t so sure that the area offers enough space for a new, expanded library.

“If we have to go up two stories, we might as well do it where we are [currently],” she said. Stuart added that, “Everyone seems in agreement that, one way or the other, that old library is going to come down.”

Library leaders and supporters believe that the Powell community has outgrown the current facility; a needs assessment conducted earlier this year by Minges and Associates concluded that the library “is totally inadequate to provide service to the estimated 11,719 population in the Powell area.”

While county property records say the building is 12,000 square feet in total, consultant Jim Minges found that it only has about 9,000 square feet of usable space.

The $8 million to $10 million estimate for a new building is intended to be a conservative estimate, based on guidelines from the American Library Association, but that’s “not to say that this will be the figure we actually need to spend to get what we want since costs will no doubt go up before we start building,” Stuart said.

“Who knows what construction costs will be in 2024 or 2026, whenever we get to do this,” she added.

Editor's note: This version corrects the total square footage of the current Powell library.

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