Majority of council not backing library board recommendation

Four council members have told The Gazette they favor building the city's new $45 million library on the TrueNorth block - a site that did not win the library board's endorsement.

The TrueNorth site is favored by council members Monica Vernon, Pat Shey, Justin Shields and Tom Podzimek. The block directly faces the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art across Fourth Avenue SE and Greene Square Park.

That said, Mayor Ron Corbett says it's still anybody's guess as to which of the three proposed sites the nine-member City Council will choose tomorrow night for the library. The mayor was touting all three sites as excellent ones, though he's said repeatedly he favors the Emerald Knights' block.

The council vote surely will be a split one.

For his part, Podzimek said he had supported the Gazette Communications site after hearing the library board's endorsement of it. However, he said, he changed his mind when the architect of the city's widely accepted downtown plan, Lonnie Laffen of JLG Architects of Grand Forks, N.D., said last week that the TrueNorth site was the one that had the best chance to a special one for the library.

Council member Chuck Wieneke says he's voting for the Emerald Knights site because it is on the highest ground of the three proposed sites and will never flood, because it takes the least amount of private property off the tax rolls and because it will cost the least to buy.

Still undecided are council members Kris Gulick, Chuck Swore and Don Karr.

Swore, a new member to the council, said he's given up on his idea of rebuilding the library at its former spot on First Street SE. He said he favors none of the three proposed sites and will be listening to see who on the council can persuade him one way or another.

Karr said the matter likely will come down to cost, though he said he was concerned the parking ramp proposed for the Emerald Knights site would mar the view of the library along First Avenue East.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Gulick was driving to Des Moines to meet with the Des Moines library director and tour the new Des Moines Public Library on Wednesday. Last weekend, he visited the library in Naperville, Ill., considered one of the best in the nation.

“I'm doing my own due diligence, and I assume everybody else is doing theirs,” Gulick said.

The Federal Emergency Management, which will pay to relocate the library and for some of the cost of construction, is to provide cost figures for each site to the council tonight.

The library board recommended the Gazette Communications block as its first choice, given its proximity to the Museum of Art and Greene Square Park, followed by the Emerald Knights site. The board members liked the TrueNorth site but were concerned about parking, the possibility of having to buy flood insurance and owners who were less motivated to sell than those at the other two sites.

Corbett said he understood that both Gazette Communications and TrueNorth had modified their purchase/relocation prices downward.