| Work Detail |
As the city prepares for Saturday’s “grander opening” of the public library, a search is also underway to find a new director to lead it. The library closed last month for the final work on the two-phase, $25.3 million construction and redevelopment project. The first half of the work saw a brand-new 45,500-square-foot building constructed. As part of this latest work, the old building – called the Haish Memorial Library – was restored. The combined work will leave the city with a 65,000-square-foot library, which is nearly triple its former size. The Haish Memorial Library was originally built thanks to a $150,000 bequest from barbed wire baron Jacob Haish and is listed on the National Register for Historic Places, library spokeswoman Edith Craig said. As part of the renovation, the reference room was scheduled to be converted into a teen area where youth can gather. It will include a sitting room, teen-oriented collections, and a gaming system. The old fiction room is expected to house items about the area’s history, among the many changes, Craig said. Additionally, she said, the back office space and the main floor are set to become the Nancy D. Castle Collaboration Studio. The area is also going to be home to The KishHealth Computer Lab. “It (the renovated building) has cork floors in the same pattern that it had in the ’30s when it opened,” Craig said. “The skylight has been cleaned. The marble inside has been cleaned.” The project started in 2014. At the beginning of this year, the newly constructed building was opened to the public. If featured bright lighting and open entry and lobby areas, meeting rooms and children’s and adult materials area. Construction was on hold last year after the state failed to have a budget in place. Without it, payments on an $11.6 million grant for the construction work were stopped. The rest of the money for the project came from a $500,000 increase in the library’s property tax levy, $2 million in tax increment financing funds, loans from at least three area banks and private donations, according to city documents. The mayor and others are looking forward to the grand opening. “I think it will be a major attraction to our downtown traffic,” Mayor John Rey said. The word also is out that the library “seeks a creative and innovative leader as our next library director,” according to a post announcing the position being vacated by Director Dee Coover. Coover is set to retire Dec. 31 after more than 20 years with the library. According to the job posting, the director will be paid $85,000 a year for a role that manages the equivalent of 30 full-time staff and oversees a $2 million annual budget, among a host of other duties and responsibilities. “The director must have the ability to work with the board of trustees, library staff and city government to advance the library as a keystone institution for DeKalb,” the job post reads. The deadline to apply for the job is Sept. 23. |
