Fayetteville Public Library Seeks Input On Proposed Expansion

FAYETTEVILLE -- City residents tonight will have their first public opportunity to comment on and ask questions about the Public Library's multimillion-dollar expansion proposal.

The library's board is looking at doubling its size, potentially adding 80,000 square feet for technology areas, an auditorium and other uses. The first of several public meetings this week about the plan is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. today in the library. Meetings are scheduled for Friday and Saturday and another round in October.

During the gatherings, residents can hear from library officials, watch live online at faylib.org/fpl-expansion or pose questions through Twitter. Jeffrey Scherer of Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle, an architecture firm in Minneapolis is expected to present design concepts.

The expansion cost has been estimated to be $50 million.

David Johnson, the library's executive director, said Wednesday adjustments to the designs might be needed to bring down the price tag. In recent months he said private donations would be vital, as well as a possible property tax boost.

"We're going to talk some more about design concepts and look at how we can balance a design that's going to take advantage of the City Hospital property and also be very conscious about cost," he said. "At the end of the day, we want to build a facility that we can afford to operate."

If the board goes through with the expansion, the library would extend onto adjacent former City Hospital property, which the board is buying for $2 million.

It would allow for tens of thousands more print and audiovisual materials and a 750-seat auditorium with retractable seats for concerts, banquets, dance recitals, robotics competitions and public lectures.

"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,'" Jim Blair, former general counsel for Tyson Foods and a major donor for the library, told board members in June. "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."

The next round of public input sessions is planned Oct. 8-11.