The Villadom Times Weekly Newspaper Online-Oct 13, 2010 Issue

Mahwah October 13, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Library staircase concerns township councilman by Frank J. McMahon A Mahwah councilman thinks that spending $240,000 on a granite staircase as part of the township’s public library expansion is wasteful spending in a poor economy. Councilman John Roth raised an objection to the cost of the staircase at the last public council meeting, and he explained after the meeting that he raised the issue because two members of the library board contacted him when they learned of the cost of the staircase and were stunned to hear it. “The council needs to have a better understanding of what’s going on at the public library,” Roth said. “This is a circular staircase made of granite and the architect who designed it described it as a ‘monumental staircase.’ It is indeed a monumental staircase and a monumental misuse of tax dollars: $240,000 for a staircase flies in the face of all logic.” Councilman Samuel Alderisio, the governing body’s liaison to the library board, explained that when the staircase was originally proposed its cost was not known. When the cost became known, Alderisio said the architect advised that if a change were made at that time it would cost almost as much and not last as long as granite. Mayor Richard Martel also pointed out that the total cost of the staircase includes the cost of framing it, and that cost must be separated from the cost of the granite versus concrete. He also explained that a straight staircase was not what the library board wanted aesthetically, and Alderisio added that a straight staircase would take up more room. “I’m not questioning that we need a staircase,” Roth told the council. “I’m questioning this particular staircase. In a $1.5 million project, $240,000 for a staircase seems out of line, particularly in a municipal facility.” Council President John DaPuzzo recommended that the library board be asked to provide the council with all the bid documents for the council’s review and then, if the council wishes, the head of the library board could be invited to a future council meeting. When asked for his reaction to Roth’s concern, Mahwah Library Board President Curtis Koster emphasized that all members of the library board voted in favor of the expansion. He said he is not required to come before the council, but any council member could come to a library board meeting and ask any questions he or she has about the library expansion. “The specs, contracts, and the bidding documents have all been made public all along and so there are no secrets,” Koster said. “I personally presented the plans of what we were going to do to the council three or four years ago and (they) included the stairway and we are building it as advertised. The stairway has been an integral part of the project from day one, and the incremental cost of the granite over anything else is less than the cost of an automobile.” Explaining the reason for the open curved stairway, Koster said, “You have to tie the two halves of the library together. You can’t have a back staircase; it’s got to be a unified entity. Ideally, you would like to have everything on one floor, but buildings are not built that way. So you tie it in with a large opening to the lower level and a suitable stairway.” Koster explained that the expansion will provide $25atOffmore,Newcustomer, not applicable to a Adult Bicycle Priced $300 or one per prior purchases. Offer expires 12/31/10 396 Franklin Ave Wyckoff, NJ 201-891-5500 Across from Aldo’s Restaurant Wyckoff Cycle LLC much needed meeting rooms for the library’s programs and especially for the young adult program, which is the fastest growing program at the library. He emphasized that the library saved its own money to pay for the expansion, and the library has donated several hundred thousand dollars to the township over the past three years. The $1.5 million project involves the interior of the building only except for an exterior door on the lower level that is being moved several feet. The renovation is expected to be completed and open to the public by January. When completed, the lower level of the library will be accessed via a curved stairway to be located in an atrium just past the charge desk near the ground level entrance to the library. At the bottom of that staircase there will be a lower lobby reading room and coffee vending area with an art gallery section behind the staircase where the elevator is located. A glass paneled wall will separate that area from a foyer area and a corridor that leads to restrooms and the entrance to a workshop area, a computer server storage area, a storage room, the existing electric room, and the existing staircase at the northwest end of the building. On the Ridge Road side of the foyer area, there will be a small meeting room for the Friends of the Mahwah Public Library adjacent to a storage room on the north side of the lower level. East of that meeting room there will be a large meeting room that can be separated into two meeting rooms if necessary. To the south of that meeting room and across a corridor will be another large meeting room that can also be separated into two meeting rooms. Both of those meeting rooms can be converted into collection rooms in the future, if necessary. Adjacent to that meeting room is another storage room and the lower level lobby through which is accessed an octagonal reading theater/video conference room. Koster explained that the meeting rooms will be available to non-profit community groups and businesses on a fee basis for meetings and conferences, even when the library is not open. 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