Extra features for new library could depend on bids

Four features desired by the city's library board for the city's new downtown library at Greene Square Park will be bid separately from the main project bid and added to the project only if the budget permits.

Bob Pasicznyuk, the library's director, told the library board that the four features are:

- A “green” roof intended to allow patrons to use the roof and to catch rainwater and keep it out of the river.

- An upgraded finish to a skywalk that will connect the Fourth Avenue SE Parkade to the library.

- Upgrades to the library's landscaping, including the use of permeable pavers.

- An upgraded window system for the library's auditorium.

Pasicznyuk said a building committee of which he is a member also is making some minor adjustments to the building plans approved earlier by the library board. Digital signage in the new library will show the time of day so the library will not need as many clocks, he said. He also noted that a plan for a stand-alone building directory has been scrapped.

After the Thursday library board meeting, Pasicznyuk estimated that bids for construction of the new library, which in total is a $45 million project, will come in early spring.

He said he was aware that Mayor Ron Corbett is proposing to steer some of the city's revenue from the local-option sales tax to the library project to help with the library site purchase.

Corbett on Thursday said the City Council chose a more costly site for the library - the site across Fourth Avenue SE from Greene Square Park, which now houses TrueNorth Companies - than the library board had selected. So it's only fair that te council help make up the site-acquisition cost difference, the mayor said.