Mt. Prospect firm awarded Cook Library expansion

A suburban contracting firm with a portfolio of public projects will handle the expansion and renovation of Libertyville's Cook Memorial Public Library, officials announced Wednesday.

A.J. Maggio Co., a Mount Prospect company, is set to start work June 29, Cook Memorial spokeswoman Erin Maassen said. The project should be completed in August 2010.

Maggio is no stranger to library construction. It's now building a new Fox Lake Public library.

The firm's other public projects include an expansion of the Lake County Health Department's Grand Avenue campus in Waukegan, a gymnasium at Libertyville High School and an administrative center in Palatine-Schaumburg High School District 211.

Fourteen companies bid for the Cook Memorial job, but A.J. Maggio's $5 million offer was the least expensive, officials said. The library board approved the contract Tuesday night.

The plan calls for an 11,000-square-foot addition to the Cook Park building, which is on Milwaukee Avenue in downtown Libertyville. The extra space will bring the building to about 44,000 square feet.

The building will close for the duration of the work. Initially scheduled to shut down June 7, the closing date has been rescheduled to June 19.

During construction, library officials will operate a temporary library out of a storefront on the 100 block of North Milwaukee Avenue in Libertyville. That facility will open at noon June 22, not June 8 as originally proposed.

Officials also will expand hours at the branch library in the basement of Vernon Hills' village hall during the project.

However, all of the district's libraries will be closed June 20 and 21 to allow staffers to set up the computer system at the temporary Libertyville site, Maassen said.

No library materials will be due on those two days, she said.

Cook Memorial administrators and some librarians will work at a temporary office elsewhere in a Libertyville during construction.

The effort is one of two Cook Memorial library projects to get under way this year. A new, 20,000-square-foot library also is being built on Aspen Drive south of Route 60 in Vernon Hills. It will replace the branch at village hall.

EVS Construction of Aurora is handling the Vernon Hills effort. About $7 million will be spent on each project.