Wednesday, April 21, 2004

Books and staff may move while library renovation and expansion occur By MICHAEL BOYLAN mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com In order to expand it, they may have to move it: The Peachtree City Library, that is. “If it’s possible to move out during this process at no extra expense, it is worth it to both our staff and patrons,” said Marie Washburn, vice chairman of the Peachtree City Library Commission. Commission member Mary Ann Browning added, “There would be a lot less liability with no patrons at the library while the renovation and construction is going on.” The Library Commission met Wednesday evening and got an update from the Leo Daly Company on the renovation and expansion of the building next to City Hall. According to staff members from Leo Daly and Director of Leisure Services Randy Gaddo, everything is on budget and on schedule. Gaddo said they were considering relocating the books and staff from the library during the renovation, thereby eliminating building the library in phases. “The question is to phase or not to phase,” said Gaddo. “If we move to another location, the construction can be done quicker. It will be less money and less of a hassle.” Though there was no concrete figure for how much money would be saved, it was estimated that the process that was scheduled to take between 14 and 16 months would take close to 12 months. Gaddo also stated that a location to move to had not been chosen but that he and members of city staff were looking for locations as close as possible to the current building. The next step for the Leo Daly Company and the new library is to go before the Peachtree City Planning Commission on Monday, April 26 at 7 p.m. In other news, the commission approved requests to purchase a transcribing machine for the Historical Preservation Society and the oral history project that is part of Peachtree City’s Living History Program from Staples for $209.99 and to pay $500 for one of the library staff members to attend training in archiving from the Georgia Archives Institute. “These are not unreasonable requests right now,” said Commission Chair Chris Clark, “but we won’t be able to do this later. You will have to look for a different source of funding in the future.”