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August 25, 2010

South Plainfield library: Seven-member committee announced to study move

http://www.mycentraljersey.com
By JEFF GRANT • STAFF WRITER • August 23, 2010

SOUTH PLAINFIELD — A bipartisan panel will consider ideas for replacing the borough's outdated, crowded library, the latest in a series of attempts in recent years to address the issue.

South Plainfield library: Seven-member committee announced to study move

The seven members who will serve on the committee were announced during the Aug. 16 Borough Council meeting.

Mayor Charles Butrico, who formed the group, has said he wants it to develop recommendations by Oct. 15.

"We're going to look at everything,'' Butrico said.

The committee's creation follows years of discussion, but no agreement on how to address the facility that library officials have said must be replaced.

"We can't stay in that building,'' library trustees President Eric Aronowitz said about the facility next door to the municipal building on Plainfield Avenue.

At 46 years old, the library's 6,400 square feet force workers to squeeze into small rooms with files and books piled around desks.

But perhaps the biggest drawback to the building is that it has no separate area for community meetings or special activities, forcing outside groups to gather in
the same area as library patrons, Aronowitz noted.

Besides Aronowitz, the group assembled by Butrico includes Republican Councilman Rob Bengivenga Jr., Democratic Councilwoman Chrissy Buteas and library trustee and treasurer Nina Rohrer. The committee also includes two members of the public, Bob Golan and Suzanne Lepore. Golan is listed as a project archivist for the special
collections section at Princeton Theological Seminary's library. Lepore's background was not immediately available.

Aronowitz said that during the past several years the issue has been discussed informally without a solution.

In 2008, the borough held a nonbinding public referendum in which voters rejected building a new $4.5 million facility on the present site. However, a turnout
of less than 12 percent called into question whether the results accurately reflected public sentiment.

In March, the trustees voted to relocate the library to an industrial park in the southern section of town.

But on May 27, the borough's Zoning Board of Adjustment rejected the library's variance application, saying that a lack of sidewalks and the location of several heavy
industries within two blocks was inappropriate for a library.

In mid-July, a committee of borough Board of Education and Borough Council members suggested studying moving the library to the school district's Roosevelt administration building. But Aronowitz has said the required technological upgrades at Roosevelt likely would be too costly.

The new panel's work will come against a political backdrop.

With the date falling about two weeks before Election Day, Butrico noted action on the committee's findings likely would fall to the next Borough Council, which will
be seated in January.

Control of the governing body will be at stake in November, when voters decide on two council seats now held by Republicans, who maintain a 4-2 majority on council.

Donna Egan, a library trustee, expressed support for the panel.

"We need to get as many ideas out there as possible. I think we have to give the committee a chance to get rolling,'' Egan said.

Jeff Grant: 908-243-6612; jgrant@MyCentralJersey.com

Posted by tumulty at August 25, 2010 10:46 AM

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