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July 25, 2008
New township library is in the works for Monroe
By JEREMY ROSEN • Courier-Post Staff • July 24, 2008
MONROE — Mold, a leaky roof, no designated parking and faulty wiring are among the problems library officials said they've dealt with in the township library on Main Street.
A few times, library director Elizabeth Lillie said, birds have flown into the building through breaks in some older windows and set off alarms.
Lillie also highlighted chronic problems with the two-story library's chair lift.
"It doesn't always work. Someone has had to carry handicapped children up the stairs," she said. "It's tough to keep putting Band-Aids on problems. It's throwing good money away because you can't fix what's wrong with it."
And the township has moved on.
At Tuesday night's town council meeting, council unanimously approved six bids of various contractors worth $4,007,684 for a new library.
Work is scheduled to start in the coming weeks on a one-story library inside the former Verizon building at 713 Marsha Ave., about a mile from the current one
The estimated grand opening is in February or March.
Library staff members said they are excited that pretty soon they won't have to worry about chair lifts or accidental alarms.
The 25,000-square-foot library will be nearly three times larger than the current building, which Lillie said was supposed to temporarily house the library that moved there in the 1970s.
Lillie said the size increase is vital for the growing library. She said it has 15,000 to 20,000 cardholders, has attracted 100 new registrants per month since December 2003 and attracted 180,000 visitors in 2007. With the added space, programs and features will improve, she added.
Some of the new library's features will be a technology training laboratory that could be used for workshops and training, tutoring rooms, a local history room with a rotating display of collections and a craft and story time room.
Lillie said the new library will also have a meeting room for community groups that can accommodate 300 people. She said it could also be revenue generating and be rented to businesses.
"This has been such a wonderful thing, because we've waited so long," said Lillie, a library employee for almost 21 years. "When times are the way they are in this state, it's so refreshing."
Reach Jeremy Rosen at (856) 486-2456 or jrosen@camden.gannett.com
Posted by tumulty at July 25, 2008 2:41 PM
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