Fayetteville Public Library Board Agrees: 'Be Bold'

FAYETTEVILLE -- Leaders of the Fayetteville Public Library want it all. And maybe more.

The library's Board of Trustees voted Monday to move forward with an estimated $50 million expansion project that would nearly double the library's footprint by late 2017 or early 2018.

At A Glance

Public Library

The Fayetteville Public Library, which opened in 2004, cost approximately $28 million to build. Voters approved a three-quarters-cent sales tax that collected $19.3 million between 2000 and 2002. An $8.1 million private fundraising campaign included $5.5 million in donations from Jim Blair, Barbara Tyson and the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation.

Source: Staff Report

The project, as envisioned in a "master plan" by Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle architects, includes about half of the City Hospital property, south of the library at Rock Street and School Avenue. City Hospital is being purchased using $2 million from the library's foundation.

A full build-out of the expansion project would feature about 80,000 square feet of additional space, including a bridge over Rock Street; nearly 140,000 more print and audiovisual materials; new computers; a "maker space" with 3D printers and audio and video editing bays; and a 750-seat auditorium with retractable seats where concerts, banquets, dance recitals, robotics competitions and public lectures could be held.

"The library expansion, if you look at it at first blush, the numbers might scare you," Jim Blair, former general counsel for Tyson Foods and a major donor for Fayetteville's current library, told board members at the outset of Monday's meeting.

"I know it is scary, and I know the tendency is going to be to say, 'All this is too much, and we can leave out some things and finish them in the future,'" Blair added. "But I hope you don't do that. I hope you go for broke. I hope you go for a library that a town of 120,000 people is going to need."

Neither Blair nor library board members detailed how they plan to cover the estimated $50 million price tag.

David Johnson, executive director, said an August 2015 bond election could be held, where voters would be asked to increase the city's property tax rate by an untold amount. Private donations would also be needed, Johnson said.

The library currently receives 1 mill from the city. That works out to about $40 annually for the owner of a $200,000 home. The library's millage was budgeted to generate about $1.3 million this year.

Members of the library foundation, who attended Monday's meeting, questioned whether a multipurpose auditorium should really be part of the library's mission.

"Is that vital to the viability of the library?" David Russell, president at First Security Bank, asked.

Maylon Rice, board treasurer, responded, "This is the library for the future. Not the library for yesterday or today."

Brenda Boudreaux, another board member, noted the popularity of programs and events in the Walker Community Room, which fits about 190 people.

"We have an auditorium," Boudreaux said. "It's a very small one, though, and it's inadequate. We see this being used greatly. I feel like what we're talking about here is not necessarily changing how the library's being used that much. It's just expanding, because we need more space in those areas."

Library staff expect nearly 60,000 people to attend more than 1,700 programs in 2014.

Johnson said he has heard from people who don't want to bring their children to library events anymore because it's so crowded. Several times in the library's 10-year history, like when celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain visited in 2007, staff members have had to remove shelves and furniture from the building's main floor to accommodate guests.

Johnson said there are few auditoriums in Fayetteville that community groups can use for free on a regular basis. The Walton Arts Center is expensive to book, he said, and groups would have to work around regularly scheduled performances. Fayetteville High School's auditorium is not available for outside groups, he added.

Board member Hershey Garner said an even larger facility may be needed. "If over the next six months, we determine that we need another 200 seats in our multipurpose room or additional parking, that could be added," Garner said.

Johnson said another round of public input meetings are planned, beginning in late summer. Those meetings will help determine what, exactly, the expanded space will look like, he added.

"We still have a long way to go," Jeffrey Scherer, the architect for the project, said. "At each stage of the process, it'll get modified based on public input, on realities of fundraising and on other things that might happen."

NW News on 06/17/2014

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