After nine months of examining every side of the old library for an accessible entrance, the Old Library Accessibility Committee recommended to the selectmen at their Tuesday meeting this week that the town restore the building’s original center entrance on Fairbank Street. The committee came with conceptual drawings and estimates for three options, and while the center entrance carried the highest price tag, committee members said the advantages put it at the top of its list.
Committee member and architect Wendy Cote-Magan provided the drawings and Steve Kirby of Vertex, the project manager of both the Town Hall and Hildreth House renovation projects, provided the estimates, which included construction costs and contingencies, but no design fees.
The first option calls for a new path from Fairbank Street to the back door of the building that would meet Architectural Access Board (AAB) regulations. The slope of the existing route exceeds the 8.4 percent maximum allowed for a ramp by the AAB and has no handrails. The new path would have a 5 percent slope, and because it would be a path rather than a ramp, no handrails would be required. Estimated cost: $54,000.
The second option would install a ramp parallel to the existing stairs on the side of the building that would wrap around and meet at the side entrance landing. The old entryway would be removed, the landing would be extended, and a side entrance and vestibule would be built. This option is estimated at $300,000.
The third option (see drawing) would restore the center entrance to the former library. That entrance was demolished and replaced with the current side entrance during a 1983 renovation. Restoring it would require a new entryway and vestibule as well as stairs and a ramp. The estimate for this option is $376,000, but committee Chairman Mark Mikitarian said that not removing the side entrance could bring its cost below that of the second option.
Option 3. (Courtesy drawing) CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Pros and cons
Mikitarian said the access committee recommended the third option for three reasons: It enables everyone entering the building to use the same entrance; it respects the historical integrity of the building; and it “reconnects the building to the Common.” The second option also provides a single entrance, but Mikitarian said that its cost is nearly as high as the third, which has more advantages. Selectwoman Lucy Wallace, an access committee member, explained that the first option, while an order of magnitude lower in price, requires a separate entrance for disabled people, which she said was “totally inappropriate.” Selectman Chairman Ken Swanton, who also serves on the access committee, said he was the sole member to not vote for the third option. Although he preferred it aesthetically, he thought it should be left to the selectmen to weigh the three options “because the cost differences were so extreme.”
The committee reminded the board that a renovation costing more than $105,000 (one-third the appraised value of the building) would trigger full AAB compliance inside the building. Mikitarian said it might be possible to get variances from the AAB for some noncompliant items, as was done for Town Hall. But the committee did not know what might be required or what it might cost to achieve full compliance, he said. Wallace noted that the Massachusetts Historical Commission offers grants to towns for renovation of historic buildings, especially for accessibility improvements.
Next steps
The next step, committee members said, would be to hire an architect to do schematic drawings for the center entrance option and to provide a list of code compliance requirements that would be triggered by the renovation, as well as an assessment of what might be waived by the AAB. The architect will be asked to provide cost estimates for all required work. The committee is requesting a Reserve Fund transfer of $9,500 to hire the architect, a request that needs to be made of the Finance Committee, which doesn’t meet again until Dec. 7.
In the meantime, the selectmen asked the committee to contact architects and return to their Dec. 6 meeting with quotes and time frames; they will then vote on whether to support the Reserve Fund transfer. Town Administrator Tim Bragan confirmed that requests for design services lower than $10,000 do not need to follow the usual procurement procedures. Before Cote-Magan left the table, Selectman Ron Ricci told her, “I like the front entrance, and I’m the cheapest guy at the table. I just wish you had lived here in 1983.”
