SHAWANO, WI- The future of the current Shawano Library was a topic of discussion for the Shawano County Executive Committee on Thursday.
“I personally believe it is probably the next big build for the county.”
County Administrative Coordinator Jim Davel said it is time to start planning.
“We have a lot of issues at the library,” said Davel. “Anything from black mold to sewer gas coming into the facility to the air circulation.”
The library has given a list of projects requests that would come out of the CIP (Capital Improvement Project) Fund, but Davel says that may not be the way to go.
“We cannot continue to put a band aid on the current library,” he said. “To me, we are putting money there and we don’t know if that would even fix the problem. The facility is in such need of renovation.
The list includes a elevator starter ($5,000), HVAC engineering ($150,000), lighting ($70,000), HVAC system ($1.75 million), boiler replacement ($160,000), ceiling tiles ($75,000), windows and doors ($200,000), foundation ($33,000) for a total over $2.4 million dollars.
“I would not go and put 2 million into that building,”said Supervisor Kathy Luepke.
“When we took that building on, we knew it was a piece of junk, but it was free, but the lot is an investment property and the library was tended to be a band aid at the time,” said County Board Chairman Tom Kautza.
Davel explained multiple options they have. “We do fix the problems, we build a new facility at the current location, we build a new facility at an alternate location or we find a new facility at an alternate location.”
The idea of a new building is something the Library board has been talking about. Library Director Krisi Hauer said when it comes to library’s, size is important.
“I think size is going to be one of the bigger situations,” Hauer said. “The building right now is 21,000 square feet and our recommendations through the studies are 35,000 t0 40,000 square feet and that size of building gets a little more complicated if we are trying to keep it in the center of the city.”
The committee decided to put the issue into the hands of the Library Committee to start looking into options.
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