Cape library cost cut

A November referendum in Cape Elizabeth will ask to support borrowing up to $6 million.

At a public hearing held May 31 at town hall to debate
 an $8.5 million proposal to rebuild Thomas Memorial
Library, resident Bob Tripler, at podium, poses questions
about the project to librarian Jay Scherma, seated, right. 

CAPE ELIZABETH — At a May 31 public hearing attended by more than 80 residents, the Cape Elizabeth Town Council got the public input they’ve long been calling for on an $8.5 million library rebuild and, in response, agreed Monday to trim the project by nearly 12 percent.

In a workshop session, councilors agreed on wording for a Nov. 6 referendum will ask voters if they’ll support borrowing “up to $6 million” toward reconstruction that will raze all but the front “Old Pond Cove School” section of the library, facing Scott Dyer Road. Based on a fundraising study released in January by Portland consulting firm Demont Associates, town officials believe another $1.5 million can be raised in local, private donations.

That vote will be something in the nature of a straw poll, if only because nothing in state law or the town charter requires public approval of municipal bonding. The charter only allows voters to overturn by petition any capital spending in excess of 0.05 percent of the most recent state property valuation – about $800,000 in Cape Elizabeth.

Plans for a new library have percolated in town since at least 2007, although, they took the backburner with the advent of the recession. Library trustees and town councilors have publicly begrudged an apparent lack of public interest since last year when the project began to once again pick up steam. However, when the council signaled in March that it would act unilaterally on bonding to fund the library project, hackles were raised across town.

“We were told somebody had a petition already signed,” said Councilor James Walsh. “They had all the signatures, they just needed to put a date at the top.”

Much debate was given at Monday’s meeting to public expectation of an ability to vote on large projects. With that in mind, the council also launched plans to amend the town charter to create a “trigger” to mandate voter approval of large capital spending projects.

Those amendments, as well as wording for the November referendum, will get a first reading at the June 11 council meeting, followed by a public hearing, likely in July.

Looking back at the May 31 meeting, councilors agreed there appeared to be general consensus from attendees that Cape can use a new library. However, councilors and library officers saw resistance to the estimated $8.5 million price tag, given repeated requests to calculate an impact on tax bills. That demand is hard to satisfy, said council Chairwoman Sara Lennon, partly because sketch plans are “only 20 percent” of the way toward a finished product, and partly because bonding and construction would not occur until 2014, at the soonest.

Still, after 40 minutes of chicken-and-egg debate over what should drive the project, costs or needs, the council agreed in principal to shave $1 million from the proposal. The idea is still to replace the four buildings behind the Pond Cove School, dating from 1849 to 1986, with a new two-story structure designed to evoke a Colonial-era feel mixed with modern sensibilities. However, to facilitate the lower budget, as much as 4,000 square feet may be carved from the original 23,000-square-foot layout, including a room that was to have been dedicated to the Cape Elizabeth Historical Society.

Instead, Town Manager Michael McGovern suggested housing the historical society in the police station, in a room left vacant when dispatch services were outsourced to Portland two years ago.

Even with renovations needed to better partition the old dispatch room from the police station, that move alone would save $400,000, said McGovern. The remaining space cuts, possibly to include one of four conference rooms, as well as associated cuts to contingency lines, should capture the full $1 reduction, said McGovern.

If the November vote goes as officials hope, a building committee will be created to hammer out final plans and costs.