Company hired to build new Vernon Hills library

An Aurora contractor will build the new Cook Memorial Public Library in Vernon Hills.

EVS Construction will be paid about $5.5 million for the job, which library officials hope will begin this month.

The library board unanimously approved the EVS contract Tuesday night.

Cook Memorial officials haven't yet closed the deal for the land on Aspen Drive south of Route 60. It's owned by the village of Vernon Hills, which has agreed to give the land to the library.

The closing is scheduled for Thursday, Dec. 11, officials said.

Plans call for a 20,000-square-foot library on the site, which is just south of a shopping strip. Library officials opted not to borrow money from the village to build a basement level.

A temporary branch now operating in the basement of Vernon Hills' village hall will close when the Aspen Drive facility is built.

The contract with EVS does not cover the work to be done at the main library in downtown Libertyville. That project, which also is scheduled for 2009, includes an 11,200-square-foot expansion of the 40-year-old building.

A contractor hasn't been hired for that job yet.

Each project is expected to cost $7 million.

Officials are borrowing most of the money to fund the projects but say the efforts won't result in tax-rate increases.