cd3082e52ba6a57a687bfa3c7e7f47f7.jpg

A day of speeches and shovels for new Plainsboro library

By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
   PLAINSBORO — It was a day of ceremony Monday as officials and numerous guests attended the groundbreaking of the township’s new public library in the heart of the Village Center.
   A crowd of about 70 was on hand for the ceremony, which included addresses by state and local officials, including U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12), Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Mayor Peter Cantu.
   ”The Village Center plan was born out of a collaborative planning process where the Planning Board, professional staff and citizens of Plainsboro worked together to create a vision — a pedestrian-friendly place where we can gather, a place that would become the center of community activity,” said Mayor Cantu to the crowd, huddled under a white tent next the construction site.
   ”What better than a library — especially our library, which so effectively brings together the diversity of people that make up Plainsboro — to serve as its focus.”
   The new three-story building has a planned completion date of spring 2009 — depending on winter weather — and will provide 34,000 square feet of space and capacity for 125,000 volumes, or double the current building’s capacity.
   It will relieve a drastic space shortage at the current facility, according to Library Director Ginny Baeckler, who said staffers are keeping volumes in the building’s basement and under desks, with the building holding 30,000 more volumes than it was designed for.
   That problem should vanish with the completion of the new, $12 million building, according to township officials.
   Township Administrator Robert Sheehan said the library would be used as a multi-purpose community center for Plainsboro, housing numerous activities and providing a bigger and better center of learning for the township.
   ”This is the product of the Township Committee guidance, the Planning Board, and the support of a strong professional team,” said Mr. Sheehan. “It’s a formula of success familiar to Plainsboro.”
   Rep. Holt — a scientist-turned politician — and Ms. Greenstein both tied Plainsboro’s history of research and innovation to the new library.
   ”This is a town that was built upon knowledge, so it is appropriate that the anchor of this town center is a library,” Rep. Holt said.
   Ms. Greenstein — a former Plainsboro committeewoman — also spoke about Plainsboro’s education and research history.
   ”This really is an education town,” said Ms. Greenstein. “Education means the world to the people of this area.”
   Joseph Doria, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, spoke about the importance of the public library in Bayonne, where he served as mayor and school board president for many years.
   ”The groundbreaking for a library is an occasion of happiness, and an important occasion,” said Mr. Doria. “Today, libraries are important to all, and the children.”
   The Plainsboro Township Committee awarded the $12 million contract to H & S Mechanical of Elizabeth in November, after passing bonds earlier in the year in the amount of $15.5 million.
   Fundraising efforts have raised about $1.5 million, according to Mayor Cantu, who reminded attendees at the groundbreaking that there was still time to donate.