Municipal building to be temporary library location

City library to undergo renovations.

By:Vanessa S. Holt
   FIELDSBORO — The Bordentown Branch Library collection will have a temporary home here for a year beginning in March, when renovations to the 62-year-old library in Bordentown City commence.
   Most of the library collection and special resources, including reference books and computer programs, are expected to be moved to the Fieldsboro Borough Municipal Building until the renovations are complete.
   "We are very hopeful that it’s going to be in the town hall in Fieldsboro," said Burlington County Library Director Gail Sweet. "It’s 90 percent finalized."
   The Bordentown Branch Library on East Union Street will close March 1 as renovations begin, and the temporary Fieldsboro location is expected to open within 10 days, she said.
   The Bordentown Branch Library will expand from 4,200 to 12,000 square feet, adding a second story, a new meeting room, reading and computer areas, handicapped-accessible entrances and a new basement with expanded children’s areas.
   The total cost of the project is projected at close to $2.8 million.
   A total of $941,000 was raised by the Bordentown Library Association toward the project and additional funding was secured in the form of $614,000 in state grants and a $1 million grant from the county.
   Construction delays have put the project about a year behind schedule, but once it is begun this spring it will take a year to complete, said Ms. Sweet.
   The Borough of Fieldsboro, which is served by the Bordentown library, has donated use of a 800-square-foot first floor room at the Fieldsboro Municipal Building, located at 18 Washington St.
   The entire library collection will not be moved to the temporary location, but the most popular book titles, videos, homework help programs, books on tape, reference materials, almanacs and several computers will be available, said Ms. Sweet.
   Internet access will be provided at the temporary site as well, and patrons will be able to take out books on interlibrary loan from other Burlington County Library branches.
   "It will be a small library, but we will still have a presence, and we’ll still be able to do children’s programs and have a summer reading club," said Ms. Sweet.
   The first-floor room at the municipal building will be handicapped-accessible, she added.
   The room had not been in use by the borough except to store some office equipment, she said.
   "The people have been wonderful, the mayor has been great about this," said Ms. Sweet.
   Library materials not moved to the borough hall will be put in commercial storage, she said.
   The 11 Bordentown Branch Library employees will work at the Fieldsboro site on a rotating basis, probably three at a time. When Bordentown Branch employees are not at the Fieldsboro site, they will work in other Burlington County Library branches, said Ms. Sweet.
   "No one will be laid off," she said.
   The library hours of operation will be the same, from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It will be closed on Saturdays during July and August.
   The Bordentown Branch Library expansion is expected to be complete in spring of 2004.
   "It’s moving along schedule," said Ms. Sweet. "A year late, but on schedule. It will be a wonderful new facility, and this is a happy solution in-between."