Our Library Building is Failing
Our library activities are thriving, but our library building is failing. We have been planning for a new building since 2003. Now it’s urgent, and it cannot wait any longer.
There are constant failures – big and small – in critical library building systems (vintage 1965).
- Electrical is overloaded and shorts out.
- The roof develops 8-10 significant leaks per year.
- The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning fail repeatedly, making the building uninhabitable.
- Fire alarms are at the end of their life and require replacement.
- Brittle pipes crack and gush water.
- Rain pours through the foundation, causing major floods.
- People get trapped in the elevator, and wheelchairs cannot access the main floors in the undersized elevator.
These failures have already led to multiple library closures and could have disastrous consequences for the resources inside.
At a cost of tens of millions, repairing the old building is not a responsible option.
If we want to keep a library in Belmont, we need to replace the building.
To learn more:
This video, presented at the joint meeting of the Select Board and Library Trustees on October 4, 2021, gives a seven minute overview of the multiple ways the current library building is failing and why it urgently needs to be replaced.
This set of posters, originally presented at the October 17th 2021 building tour, describes through photographs and text the various failures the current library building is facing.
Read the Belmont Citizen Herald article about why the library building needs to be replaced.
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Find out more about how various building systems, from the HVAC to the electrical to the elevator, are failing repeatedly in this Belmont Citizen Herald article.
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It is often asked: Why can’t we fix the old library building? Why build a new one? The answer is money.
Read this Belmont Citizen Herald article to learn more about the costs of addressing the building problems.