A Quad City area library is looking for help getting a new home. The River Valley District library could soon be expanding. Tonight board members will take a look at 3 different plans and ask for your input, before casting their vote. Their first option is to add on to the existing library on Main Street.
Option numbers two includes renovating the old high school academy on Route 84. The third option is to build a new building on Route 84.
The library director tells us the current facility is just too small.
Aside from typical library uses the community uses it as a place to hold meetings, gather, and there's not enough parking or room space. She tells us the expansion would also include a community center.
Back in 2011 a Formal Needs Assessment was completed. It determined that they need a building 3 times larger than the current one.
"We did have a needs assessment done by a library consultant and determined that the size of the building that we're in right now it needs to triple in size in order to accommodate future growth. But if we were just to stay to the course, as to what we are right now, not expand, not do anything else, we need to double our size," said Shelli Fehr.
The board has talking about expansion since 2004. So far, they've received nearly 75 thousand dollars in donations. Board members say that regardless of which of the 3 options is chosen taxes will not be raised to fund the expansion.
Instead they will rely on private donations, grants, and fund raising. Currently, there are no exact numbers on what the expansion will cost
