Residents Unanimously Approve Library Architect Funding

Oxford residents at a special town meeting voted unanimously Monday for spending $14,010 for an architect to design a new library, with advice from a selectman that keeping the cost of the project reasonable would be the key to gaining approval from town voters.

The special meeting was convened solely to consider the request by the Library Building and Planning Committee to move the project ahead to the next stage.

Committee member Bob Farnum said once the architect, Peter Gisolfi Associates, completes the design, town officials would have enough information to estimate the total cost and put that before the voters as a referendum question.

After the meeting, First Selectman George R. Temple said he hoped that choice would go before the voters on next November’s town election ballot.

Current thumbnail estimates for the cost are approximately $3 million, of which $900,000 would come from a gift from the late Miriam Strong, part of $3.5 million she left to the town when she died. Temple said Strong, longtime leader on the town’s wetlands agency, always hoped to see the construction of a new town library.

Her gift would leave $2.1 million to be financed by town taxpayers.

The library currently is housed in the basement of Town Hall. The plan is to construct a new 10,000-square-foot library on town property across the street from Great Oak School.

Temple and Selectman Jeff Haney both said they support building a new library. The Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance both approved the $14,010 last month.

But Haney advised the Library Building and Planning Committee to keep trying to negotiate a better price for the project.

“If we’re reasonable and show we’re out to save every buck we can, that gets the respect from the people,” Haney said.

Farnum stressed that the committee has made sure to select an architectural firm with experience building libraries in Connecticut. He and other library supporters said they believed the town’s priority should be to construct a library that would meet the town’s needs for decades to come.

Haney and Temple were optimistic following the town meeting decision. Temple said he expected a tougher time at the meeting and was happy that opposition did not materialize.

“I think the time is right for this library," Haney said. "There’s enough people in town who want this library."

He promised the Board of Selectmen would lobby voters to vote for it. “At $2.1 million, it’s doable,” he said.