TINTON FALLS — Rosemary Tunnicliffe remains “cautiously optimistic,” even as plans to move a trailer from the site of the municipal complex to the borough’s public library by the end of the month are being discussed.
“I am hoping it’ll be done by the end of next week,” Tunnicliffe said in an interview Jan. 22, adding that after 18 months of the Borough Council discussing all the different options for how to connect the trailer to the library building, now that it is being moved, it will remain unattached.
“We’re not going to hook up plumbing,” she said. “We’re going to block it and put in steps. The original plan was to knock through the library and have the two connected by a ramp.”
Without the plumbing or connective ramp, the trailer will not be open to the public, but used as storage and possibly for the first time, a quiet place for the library staff to have lunch.
“Ten minutes of peace and quiet can really do you good,” she said.
The moving of the trailer from the municipal complex on Tinton Avenue, where it was used as office space during the construction of the new municipal building, was part of a deal with the Oceanport Borough Council. The borough of Oceanport was given the larger of the two trailers for free in return for agreeing to move the smaller trailer down the road to the library.
Of course, said Borough Administrator W. Bryan Dempsey at last week’s council meeting, the move will not be completely cost-free for the borough, since the trailer will still require electricity.
“It will cost about $6,000 for the transformer,” he said. “Oceanport will cover the cost of moving, including stacking the foundation. There might be some cleanup that we’ll have to cover. It won’t cost more than $10,000.”
Dempsey was due to meet last Thursday with the contractor who is being paid by Oceanport to move the trailer.
“As soon as he says he can drop that thing,” Dempsey said, “it’s there.”
The current library measures about 3,000 square feet, and Tunnicliffe said there is not enough room to offer the kind of programs the librarians want to, but that she and her six-member staff make the most of children and teens.
In October, the council heard a presentation by architect Dennis Kowel, of Dennis Kowel Architects, Somerville, who has been working with the library board and residents to design a new library that would measure 25,000 square feet and cost about $7 million.
The council has been considering bringing the issue of funding the project to the public in a referendum, but given the current economic crisis, some believe it would be better to wait.
However, because the economy is doing so poorly, Councilman Paul Ford said at last week’s council meeting, there may be some stimulus funding put in place for exactly this kind of project, as long as it is “shovel ready” when and if the funds become available.
Tunnicliffe said she is very optimistic about stimulus funding becoming available, and that she is quite happy with the project as Kowel presented it, but that the funding will likely only cover a percentage of the cost of building a new library.
“The council may still want to go to referendum for the rest of the money,” she said. “Who’s going to want to spend any more money now?”