Barrington library trustees detail the cost of expansion

Barrington residents now can learn how much a proposed 44,000-square-foot library addition will cost them.

On Monday, Barrington Area Library District trustees officially decided to put the proposed $34.3 million expansion plan on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Trustees also finalized all financial details, including how much the project will cost residents if voters approve the addition.

For residents living in a $500,000 house, the expansion will cost an additional $85 to $90 a year. After the first year of the increase, officials said the rate will go down gradually for the next 20 years, while bonds are paid off.

The addition, at the district's main facility at 505 N. Northwest Hwy., would allow the library to offer more books, CDs and DVDs. "Libraries suffer from cramming too much stuff into too small of an area," said Joseph Huberty, the project's architect. "It becomes unbrowseable."

If approved, the expansion would include a children's pavilion, meeting rooms, quiet adult areas, outdoor programing space, a 24-hour service window and a cafe.

The plan also calls for a new, two-story parking deck.

The addition will also include many environmentally friendly features like green roofs and rain gardens.

The project also calls for "geo-exchange" wells to heat and cool the library.

The process works by moving heat from the earth back and forth to the building.

"It offers the opportunity to provide the library with free heating once (the wells) are paid off," Huberty said, adding that could happen within 14 years.

Trustee Lawrence Wiener said the addition will help prepare for future growth.

"We think we are one of the most valuable things in this community and we want to stay that way," he said.

The existing library was constructed in the early 1970s.

An expansion in 1993 doubled its size to its current 58,000 square feet.

In 2004, the library failed in its bid to get residents to approve a property tax increase for a proposed $28 million expansion, which would have added more than 43,000 square feet.