Funds Requested to Fix Library Violations

With the clocking ticking toward fines of $2,000 per day, the Planning and Building Committee will be asking Town Meeting voters next month for money to help make the library handicapped accessible.

A warrant article under discussion at tonight’s meeting of the committee will ask voters to approve a still undetermined amount, likely to be about $100,000, to make fixes mandated by the state.

The Massachusetts Architectural Access Board has cited four violations at the library:

The front entrance is not accessible.

The children’s entrance is not accessible.

Bathrooms are not accessible.

There is no mobility for wheelchairs between floors.

The town must complete the work in specific time periods to avoid fines of $500 per day per violation. This would total a fine of $2,000 a day, seven days a week.

The deadlines are:

June 1 for the design and drawings to be complete and ready for bidding;

Nov. 1 for complete construction of the portion of the design that was done previously as part of the proposed library expansion that failed in December;

June 30, 2013 to complete all work to bring the library into compliance.

The design work will likely cost about $60,000. The Board of Library Trustees will vote on whether to use some of their funds set aside for library needs for this project.

There was some discussion about whether these funds should be used for this project, or whether the money should be set aside for other items such as library programs.

Committee member and selectman Brook Padgett said that “there is no more pressing need’’ for the library than this project. If the trustees reject the funding, he said, he would call a larger meeting with them because the town would then be facing “an even bigger issue.’’

Additional funds for the design may come from the current town budget.

The accessibility construction phase would use $192,000 in Community Preservation money in addition to the amount that will be requested at May’s Town Meeting.

These funds would be used to address the accessibility issues and would not address concerns about ample space for programs and other concerns that have been raised by supporters of the library.

Committee member David Robbins noted that it is possible that this work could be completed, only to be changed depending on the final plans for the library.

But, he said, “we have no choice’’ because of the approaching deadlines and the high cost of not meeting them.