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August 10, 2006

More Good Information

The Darien News-Review of August 10, 2006 has an article on the front page, written by Jennifer Gode, which provides a lot of detail about plans for the new Library. Here's the illustration that accompanies the piece, showing the prospective view from Post Road. (By the way, nothing's final until we get Planning & Zoning approval, maybe in September, a final budget is agreed, and fund-raising is completed)

In the article, Louise Berry speaks to plans for the new building, including the "main street" on the first floor, where a busy area with new books, DVDs and CDs, together with a cafe and casual seats will connect the expanded Children's Room on one side of the building, and the Community Room with 170 seats on the other, next to the Library's fiction books. There will be a lower level "power library" with enhanced technology, study spaces and a teen area, and an upper level with quiet study and research areas including an extraordinary Reference Room, finance area, magazine reading room and non-fiction books.

The project cost, which includes buying the land, doing environmental remediation, upgrading the site with parking, trees, plantings and storm water control, installing a very efficient and environmentally-friendly geothermal well system for heating and cooling at low cost, constructing the new library building, purchasing the new shelves, furniture, equipment and technology, moving all the books, magazines, reusable furniture and other items from the existing library, is $26 million. And you bet there are fees in there, including some payable to the Town of Darien!

We believe we have struck just the right balance in designing the extraordinary new library Darien deserves at a cost that is affordable and will reduce future operating costs that are borne by the taxpayers of Darien.

Kim Huffard, who is chair of the Library's Campaign Committee, provides some details about fundraising plans and progress in the article.

We will sell our existing building and apply the proceeds to the project cost. Because we are conservative yankees, we have budgeted an amount that is reasonably low -- $3.5 million -- but which we will hope to exceed, since there is a lot of interest in our property from a variety of sources, including the Town of Darien.

After applying the proceeds from the sale of the building, we have a projected $22.5 million to raise privately. As Kim Huffard is quoted as saying in the article, that's by far the largest amount of money ever raised by an organization in Darien. Kim, George Wyper (Board President and co-chair of the Capital Campaign Committee) and the Committee members have been quietly approaching long-time friends of the library and others in the community during the past 15 months, and the amount contributed to date is $17.5 million.

I'm sure they feel great about what they've accomplished so far, but a good analogy might be running a marathon. You've got to be in great shape even to enter, but everyone who has ever run one says that the first 20 miles are easy compared to the last 6. Well, here the first $17.5 million is going to seem easy compared to the last $5 million, when it's going to take support from everyone in Darien once the public campaign begins in the spring of 2007.

Posted by Alan Kirk Gray at August 10, 2006 09:11 AM