In two weeks the selectmen hope to decide who will be the next occupant of the town’s old library, but questions about its readiness remain. If a new tenant is to move into the 19th-century building later this year, the selectmen must assure both the state’s Architectural Access Board (AAB) and the new occupant that it is accessible.
Responses to the board’s December request for proposals are due Jan. 23. The selectmen will review the bids and decide next steps the following morning. But getting the building ready will take longer.
To make sure that at least one accessible entrance is available by the fall, the selectmen voted last month to ask the Capital Planning and Investment Committee for up to $55,000 to make the back entrance accessible, a project that will likely entail replacing the existing door, regrading the walkway leading to it from Old Littleton Road and adding lights and railings.
The board has also asked the capital committee for an additional $20,000 to study what would be required to reopen the historical front entrance on Fairbank Street and make it accessible, an option that the board, by unanimous vote, has said it prefers. The study would also estimate the cost of that work. That project is likely to cost more than $100,000, which could trigger additional state-required upgrades to the building, such as the addition of sprinklers. The study proposed by the selectmen would estimate those costs as well.
None of this work—either the study or the work itself—would be completed in time to accommodate a fall renter, but the selectmen have said they hope that by upgrading the back entrance and showing the AAB a long-range plan for the building they could be granted a waiver.
Money well spent
Selectman Chairman Ken Swanton presented the board’s requests to CPIC on Monday. He told the committee that making modest improvements to the back door would not be wasted in the long run. “[Having] a handrail and lighting would help anyone using the back door,” he wrote in the board’s formal memo to CPIC. “[H]aving an accessible basement exit is an important safety enhancement in an emergency,” he added. But the back door is not a good long-term solution, he said. The front entrance—the selectmen’s preferred choice—would likely have to be made accessible anyway, Swanton said, once spending on the building exceeded the $100,000 threshold, which he called a likely outcome.
The next step is up to the capital committee. On Monday, its members ranked the $55,000 back door upgrade second among 11 spending requests for fiscal 2018 capital spending; the request for $20,000 to study the cost of reopening the old library front door was ranked seventh.
If the capital and finance committees approve the two requests, both would have to be approved by Annual Town Meeting April 1, where they would likely appear as articles on the warrant.
