Library expects to meet renovation goals

It’s an expansion in spirit, if not deed.

Zahir Mahmoud, executive director of the Waynesboro Public Library, told the Waynesboro City Council at its Wednesday work session that even though the library is not expanding beyond its 28,000 square foot size, it will be able to accomplish the goals it originally set in a 2006 needs assessment.

Those goals, which included an expanded space for children, meeting Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, improving security for children and staff, putting in larger genealogy space and creating a more user-friendly front desk, will still be accomplished in the renovation.

“Yes, there’s been talk about expansion,” Mahmoud said. “The way I see it, however, is expansion can be looked at two ways – expansion adding stuff to the building, is one. Expansion can also be considered expansion in service areas.”

He said that when discussing a bigger space for children’s programs and the local genealogy section, “that’s expansion of that service.”

Councilwoman Lorie Smith said she had been struggling with talk of a renovation as opposed to an expansion, because residents have already contacted her saying they thought they had voted in the referendum for an expansion.

However, Smith said after a meeting yesterday with Mahmoud and Chuck Wray of BCWH Architects – based in Richmond – and hearing from Wray and City Manager Mike Hamp last night, that she is comfortable with the current plans.

The library and its space efficiency, she said, would be “much more enhanced.”

“It’s my understanding that we will be getting quite the bang for our buck with respect to actually being able to reorganize the space, open the space up,” Smith said.

Wray told the council there were “no compromises in the plan,” which he said would also include a dedicated area for teens and a staff break area downstairs.

Councilwoman Nancy Dowdy said she appreciated that a renovated library would make better use of its space.

“I think sometimes we take things too literal with the word expansion,” Dowdy said. “To me this is an expansion.”

Vice Mayor Frank Lucente and Councilman Bruce Allen also said they supported the renovation plans.

However, Wray reiterated a point Mahmoud discussed in May, that a library renovation would cost more than the $1.2 million available through the bond money.

Wray referenced two additional projects his company is working on – one at VCU that is costing $50 to $55 per square foot, and another library in Henrico County costing about $155 per square foot. He said Waynesboro’s library would cost somewhere between those two.

It means that if the library goes through with all of the suggested renovations, it would cost at least $200,000 above the $1.2 million bond amount. Mahmoud has said previously that the library’s foundation is actively seeking contributions to complete the needed renovations. 

“We have to go back to the [library’s building] committee, the next step, with a shopping list, if you will, of costs based on priorities,” Wray said. “We have to find a way to spend the money you have and do what’s needed.”

The enhanced children’s area will take priority, Wray said.

Smith said she wants to see the renovations incorporate sustainable materials, but not at a high cost.

“The fact that you’re not expanding the building is the most sustainable thing you can do to the building,” Wray said.

The public will have an opportunity to review the library’s plans at a public meeting there July 29 from 3 to 7 p.m.

The end product, Wray said, will make the library “more efficient [and] more functional.“