Cedar Rapids seeks bid on new $49 million library

CEDAR RAPIDS - As the City Council prepared to approve plans and cost estimates for the new $49 million library on Tuesday evening, council member Don Karr had just a few more questions.

Karr told Library Director Bob Pasicznyuk he was still concerned that the size was too large for an era in which the use of electronic books is rapidly expanding. Karr also said he thought there was too much space for an auditorium.

In regard to parking, Karr said he thought that the facility, to be built across from Greene Square Park on Fourth Avenue SE, was going to depend too much on the Fourth Avenue Parkade, and he didn't like the idea of parents and children using a “dark” parking ramp to get to the library.

Karr said the success of the temporary library site at Westdale Mall has worked well, in part, because patrons had a dedicated parking lot.

Pasicznyuk, along with Gary Streit, an attorney at Shuttleworth & Ingersoll PLC who is leading a fundraising drive for the library, told Karr and the City Council that the new library was “right-sized.”

Streit said the 94,000-square-foot building is about 10,000 square feet larger than the one hit by the 2008 flood that is now being replaced, with nearly all the additional space going to a children's area.

At one point, the library board had talked of building a 105,000 square foot library.

Pasicznyuk also said the Fourth Avenue Parkade will be a good parking resource as long as the city sets aside a certain amount of space in it for library patrons.

City Council member Monica Vernon disagreed with Karr's portrayal of city parking ramps as dark and less than desirable. Vernon said the ramps, in fact, were good, clean, safe places to park.

The Council then approved the library's plans and cost estimates and sent contracts out for bid. Bid opening is slated for Sept. 21, while construction is set to begin in late November.

The library is currently forecast to open in June 2013.