Friday, June 20, 2003
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Friday, June 20, 2003 |
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Daly Co. makes first presentation of possible library expansion to public By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
The Peachtree City Library Commission met Wednesday night and had one of their larger audiences, due largely in part to a presentation from the Leo Daly Company, the firm tapped to design the possible library expansion. The public was encouraged to come, look at the presentation and offer their opinions, comments and critiques. The Daly Company visited the library May 20 and spoke with commission members and library staff about their concerns and ideas. More ideas came from their engineers who toured the facility and saw what would need to be done to the library to plan for the next 20 years. Their thorough presentation was a culmination of all of those thoughts and ideas. Chief among the functions the Daly Company thinks the library should have is an expanded children's area. There are currently 1,060 children in the library's summer reading program and most of the events this summer are full. There is limited space as it is and the library's book collection is currently growing at approximately two-and-a half percent a year, which means in 20 years, the library collection will have increased by 50 percent. Tom Finley, who gave the presentation for the Daly Company, also shared the idea of providing a flexible storytime room that can house 120 children but can also be subdivided. During the public comment portion, members of the audience suggested a separate, small craft area, carpeting the children's area and possibly having carpeted risers. Finley also spoke about enhancing sight lines in the library for staff, as a number of areas in the library cannot currently be seen by staff from their stations. Other ideas shared in the presentation included bringing in more natural light, providing four to five small meeting rooms, more view of the beautiful landscape outside, providing a courtyard reading plaza, a drive-up book drop-off, a covered area near an entrance for disabled or elderly visitors and possibly, smaller parking spaces for golf carts that would not take up regular parking spaces. The Daly Company also saw a number of things that would need to be addressed, expansion or not. First is that some of the aisles in the library are not currently up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. Though the library is handicapped accessible, some of the aisles are to narrow to turn around in a wheelchair. Another concern is the restroom located in the entrance to the library and having the entrance to the bathroom not visible to staff. Finley, who has worked on libraries of all sizes around the country, told a few stories of some odd people in library restrooms and one story of a man in the cieling of a restroom. Other things that would need to be done would be improving humidity control, upgrading HVAC systems and fix a leak in the roof. To plan ahead, the library would also want to meet state energy codes and provide a room with special thermal conditions to care for tapes and historical documents and artifacts. Currently, the library occupies close to 20,000 square feet and the Daly Company estimates that to expand properly and not have to expand again in the next 20 years, they will need to add 10,000 square feet. The library can expand close to 6,000 square feet behind the current children's area towards Drake Field. To get the remaining 4,000 square feet, the Daly Company is thinking of expanding by the current entrance, which would eliminate the problem restroom area, enhance the library's visibility from Ga. Highway 54 and enhance the plaza as an area for special community events. Close to 30 citizens attended the meeting and reacted positively to the presentation. Commission Chairman Chris Clark then asked the audience if they thought their friends and neighbors would react the same way and vote to pass a bond referendum to pay for it. One woman spoke up immediately, stating, "If we can build a dog park, we can build a library." The next meeting of the library commission is Wednesday, July 23 and Clark encouraged the citizens in attendance to return to see what the Daly Company's plans look like based on their input. He also encouraged them to bring their friends and neighbors, as passing a bond referendum for expansion will take a lot of support in the community.
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