BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer
SOUTH RIVER — The borough’s public library needs to be expanded, one way or another.
That is what library officials are saying of the 26-year-old establishment on Appleby Avenue. At 8,500 square feet in size, the facility currently has 43,000 items in its collection.
The Borough Council will decide next month whether a project to expand the library should go before voters in a November referendum.
“The collection was not meant to house that many [materials] at all,” said Andrea Londensky, the library’s director. “We’re beyond capacity.”
Library officials are looking to expand and bring the current location to 20,000 square feet.
When the library was originally built in 1979, federal funds had to cover the whole job because the borough did not have the bonding capacities to contribute to the construction. As a result, the project was cut in half, Londensky said.
“So, now we’re really just going after that second half,” she added.
Londensky and other library officials went before the Borough Council Monday in the hope of having the project placed on the borough’s six-year capital projects list. If that happens, they would be eligible for construction bond funding through the state.
Londensky said she was surprised the council opted not to place the library on the project list.
“It’s a very unusual thing,” she said. “Most libraries are not put up for referendum.”
Londensky noted that in 2004, there were only 49 library referendum projects in the whole country, with only one from New Jersey, in Boonton.
Councilman Richard Reichenbach said it was the general consensus that a concrete cost needed to be established and that an architect should be involved before a decision could be made.
“Nobody on the council has said that they are against the expansion,” he said. “What we’re concerned about is the cost. What are the cost estimates?”
Reichenbach said estimates ranging from $2.8 million to $4.5 million could have an impact on the borough’s debt and on the taxpayer.
“It’s a big decision to make, and it’s something the council is not taking lightly,” Reichenbach said.
Londensky said she is concerned with the amount of time left before the November election, and with costs associated with putting together a successful campaign.
“It’s a tremendous amount of work,” she said. “We have only 10 people working at this library and designing the building.”
To add to the workload in terms of campaigning for an expansion would be unfair, she said.
“Our focus is on developing our project to the point where we could be eligible for grant money,” she said. “We know it’s a lot of money to ask the taxpayers. If there is any way we can offset that, that’s what we would like to do.”
A special meeting will be held on June 27 to appoint an architect for the proposed project. Reichenbach said the council could make a final decision on which direction to take by its public meeting at 7:30 p.m. July 11.
“The council felt this was something the voters should have a say on,” he said. “If the voters want it, they could have the choice in November. But, the council still hasn’t made the final decision on that.”
Londensky said a town’s library is a valuable commodity and considered by some as a barometer on the quality of living in the community.
“We think our community deserves a wonderful, state-of-the-art library and that’s what we’re pursuing,” Londensky said.