Library board recommends Gazette Communications block for library relocation

Now the decision goes to the City Council.

The board of the Cedar Rapids Public Library voted 5-3 Wednesday to recommend a new library be built on the site of The Gazette and KCRG-TV9 across the street from the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and across an intersection from Greene Square Park. The Council expects to make a final decision Feb. 24.

The 9-member library board - eight of them present - chose the Gazette site narrowly over the Emerald Knights block further east, owned by the St. Martin Land Co. Both sites were attractive to the board, but just enough trustees preferred the Gazette's location and potential for surface parking.

“When I think about the Gazette block, and the downtown farmers market, and the connection to Greene Square Park, that pushes me over the edge,” said Susan Corrigan, library board president, who cast the final, deciding vote. “When people talk about a walkable downtown ... you guys, I really see that that is very, very important, to have a core, to have things in proximity to each other.”

Plans for surface parking on the site of the People's Church, 600 Third Ave. SE, was also a draw.

Corrigan was joined by Doug Elliott, Hilery Livengood, Matthew Wilding and Phyllis Fleming in supporting the Gazette site. Livengood and Fleming are both former Gazette employees - Livengood an online editor from 1995 to 1999, and Fleming an editor for 45 years who retired in 2002 as deputy managing editor.

Harriet Kalinsky, Susie McDermott and Paul Pelletier voted for the Emerald Knights site.

“I'm not sure that the average Joe in Cedar Rapids has to have this library on Greene Square. I think that they would be equally as happy having it where the Emerald Knights site is,” Kalinsky said. “As things progress in Cedar Rapids, I think that will become more and more a part of downtown.”

Chuck Peters, president and CEO of Gazette Communications, promised the library board his company would stay in Cedar Rapids, and keep as many people downtown as possible.

“We would not move television to Hiawatha. We do not prefer that,” Peters said.

If the Council agrees with the library board's recommendation, the company's newspaper operation could be out of the building at 500 Third Ave. SE by year's end, Peters said. The television station would take somewhat longer.

“Those buildings were both special purpose buildings designed for a time that's long past,” Peters said. “Yeah, we could stay there. We could spend money reconfiguring things. But to start over is a better option.”

Owners of the three sites under consideration - including TrueNorth, also on Greene Square Park - submitted sale prices to the library board earlier this week. The Gazette block was the most expensive, but the prices were closer than the library had originally estimated.

The Emerald Knights site would cost $8.2 million to buy, demolish and build parking for, said Library Director Bob Pasicznyuk. The total cost of a library at the site would be $46.3 million.

Site costs at the Gazette block will be $9.1 million. The total cost of a library there, including demolition and parking, would be $47.1 million with a surface parking lot across Sixth Street SE on the site of the People's Church. If the library has to build a new parking ramp where the KCRG-TV9 building sits, the cost will be $50.2 million.

The library board discussed TrueNorth at length, but concerns about flood insurance, parking, and Federal Emergency Management Agency funding for the project kept them from recommending it. The Council could still choose TrueNorth, however.