Plainfield Library Looks at Building Facade Concept

Below are links to the Plainfield Public Library District’s meeting of August 19th, 2015. Total run time is 2 hours. All trustees present except Crystal Andel.

PPL August 19th meeting, part 1 of 5 (30 mins)

PPL August 19th meeting, part 2 of 5 (30 mins)

PPL August 19th meeting, part 3 of 5 (30 mins)

PPL August 19th meeting, part 4 of 5 (27 mins)

PPL August 19th meeting, part 5 of 5 (15 secs)

In closed session, during a Committee of the Whole before the regular meeting, the board interviewed replacement trustee candidates Lisa Schmidt and Joshua Zumhagen before deciding on Ms. Schmidt. She was sworn in as the new trustee during the regular board meeting and will fill the vacancy until the 2017 election, when that seat is up.

The bulk of the meeting was spent working on two topics. There was the survey the PPL has since issued regarding the expansion, which will be conducted via telephone as well. That survey can be found here.

Then, the library expansion: this time the discussion was a bit about the interior design work, which will now go into hiatus while plans regarding the referendum language and the project cost estimates will come forward in discussion.

Based on public feedback already gathered this year, the new target for a tax levy referendum for expansion is for any proposed increase to a homeowner’s tax bill (for an average district home valued at not quite $300,000) to be $15 dollars or less per month.

Most of the presentation from architects Nagle-Hartray was about the first try at the front exterior design.

My take:

A lot of the board feedback on the elevation design was tepid, but still valuable. I actually liked a lot of it. It put me in mind of the old Midwest Bank building, right down Illinois, at the corner of Lockport. It seems to me classic and retro, but not old-fashioned. Take a look and see what you think, the picture above isn’t all of it. Go right to this portion at 21m45s of video part 3.

While I have you here:

When my internet not-evil-near-twin, Tim (or anyone), connects this expansion with the TIF district establishment currently being studied by the Village of Plainfield, we have to remember this:

By law, the only involvement that every other unit of government--the library, the fire district, the park district--can have in determining if any TIF district is established will be that they can be part of the discussion, in committee, but without any power of vote or decision. Further, the Village must by law extend that invitation, form that committee, if they get that far on the project. The PPL, like the PTPD and the PFPD, would be informed and get to voice an opinion, that’s all. Even that stage is months to years away.

Regardless of the comment that Village Administrator Brian Murphy made some months ago about all the other local units of government being in support of the Rt. 30 TIF, none of those other entities has been asked for “support”, nor given it.

What has happened is that they’ve all been notified of the village’s study of and interest in a new TIF district. That’s it. Whatever actually happens regarding the TIF district is up to the Village of Plainfield, alone, and none of it is happening soon or fast.

As to that off the cuff statement of support from Mr. Murphy, I don’t believe it was something he tried to do to be sneaky or that he intentionally ”lied”. I think he was just saying--a little clumsily--that everyone was aware and being courteous, i.e., no one flipped out at hearing of this. Note that he hasn’t said it, again, which should clue us all in that it was a misstatement even if he hasn’t addressed it as such, yet. Murphy just made a casual remark that didn’t accurately reflect the reality. My guess is that when the village notified others about the possibility of a new TIF district, they each said something like “okay, let us know if and when we need to show up to a meeting”. The way we all would if someone talked to us about something that might concern us down the road as part of our job, but not under our control. It’s like telling your neighbors you might be having a huge party in a couple of weeks, and inviting them, just to be fair and polite and all that, to try and insure no nuisance calls to the cops, etc., knowing full well you don’t need their permission to have that party.

The next public meeting on the expansion will be in October. The next regular board meeting will be at 6:30p on Wednesday, September 16th at the library.

If you go to the main page of the PPL’s website, you will find a link specifically for the expansion project on the left, under Quick Links—but, click here and you’ll go right to it. On that expansion page, you’ll find survey and email registration links, plus the current concept drawings and the project timeline.

You can see meeting agendas and, as they become available, minutes for the board’s meetings on the library’s website: Plainfield Public Library, board page.

As always, should you have any questions regarding this content, please feel free to contact me at radical4plainfield@gmail.com or via regular mail at Polito, PO Box 1071, Plainfield, IL 60544.