Loganville library remains on track

With a 4-2 vote last week, the Loganville City Council approved the latest in a series of intergovernmental agreements needed to construct the first phase of a new library.

The new library, to be located on Main Street at the intersection of Covington and Lucy streets, will replace the existing O’Kelly Memorial Library at the intersection of Georgia Highways 78 and 20. The new facility will retain the O’Kelly Memorial Library name.

The first phase of the library is slated to cover 10,833 square feet, considerably larger than the existing library which occupies 7,162 square feet of usable space. 

The agreement approved Thursday by the city council, also involving the Walton County government and the Azalea Regional Library System, puts construction of the new library under a $5.7 million budget.

The work will be funded by a $3 million state grant, $1.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars from the City of Loganville, and $1.2 million in “impact fees” from Walton County. Impact fees are charged by the county to new development to help pay for public services.

The work is slated to be done by Garland & Associates Contractors Inc., a Watkinsville-based commercial construction contractor, at a cost of $5.2 million. While that is below the $5.7 million in funding slated for the new library, it does not include costs for engineering work, stormwater management infrastructure and the library’s furnishings, fixtures and equipment.

What that means is that the New Library Planning Committee, comprising representatives of the Azalea Regional Library System, the city, the O’Kelly Memorial Library Board and the Georgia Public Library Service, likely will engage in “value engineering” of the project. That process could swap proposed construction materials for less expensive options, and could also change plans for furnishings, fixtures and equipment in the first phase of the library project.

There is, however, the possibility that the new library could attract $1 million in grant funding from the legislature early next year, although that funding is not necessarily assured. Those state dollars, if awarded to the library project, could be further augmented by another $1 million through fundraising by the Friends of the O’Kelly Memorial Library, although the council learned at its Monday non-voting work session that the group has thus far raised just $105,000.

Whatever money might come in beyond the needs for the first phase of the library, those dollars will be allocated to a planned second phase of the library project that will add roughly another 2,000 square feet to the facility. 

The current timetable for the first phase of library construction calls for work to begin very early in 2025, with substantial completion expected by the end of the year.

At Monday’s non-voting council work session, Councilmembers Patti Wolfe and Melanie Long were sharply critical of the library funding situation. 

Wolfe wondered what might happen if contractors encountered an unusual amount of rock on the construction site, a not-uncommon occurrence in Loganville. Long was critical of the Azalea Regional Library System’s decision to hire Garland & Associates for the project just two days after a Nov. 20 bid opening that featured a number of companies seeking the project.

It was not particularly surprising, then, that Long and Wolfe cast the two dissenting votes on the intergovernmental agreement at Thursday’s council meeting.

After the Thursday session was adjourned, Long said in a brief interview that she was concerned about the “value engineering” that could be applied to the project, wondering whether “we’re going to cut quality to get a building.”

She also wondered at the overall need for a new library, suggesting that they are “falling out of fashion” with the proliferation of cellphones and other digital tools that mean “everybody has a library in their pocket.”

Wolfe contended Thursday that, in the end, the new library is “going to cost the citizens more money” than the $1.5 million in federal grant funding. She also suggested that library advocates had been untruthful in allegedly telling citizens in the early stages of library planning that work on Highways 20 and 78 was going to eliminate parking at the current library site.

Voting in favor of the latest intergovernmental agreement for the new O’Kelly Memorial Library on Thursday were Councilmembers Anne Huntsinger, Bill Duvall, Lisa Newberry and Branden Whitfield.

At Monday’s non-voting work session, Newberry urged Wolfe and Long not to “go back and rehash” issues surrounding the library, while Huntsinger suggested that her two council colleagues were “grinding on issues” beyond the scope of the intergovernmental agreement “that we have no control over.”

In other council business Thursday, Long and Wolfe also cast dissenting votes on a $536,450 stormwater project on Covington Street in downtown Loganville. 

The project, to be constructed by Jefferson-based Civil Construction and Utilities, will feature installation of a stormwater detention pond. Civil Construction and Utilities was one of six bidders, and offered the lowest price for the work.

Long, who lives adjacent to the project site, has suggested that an underground stormwater control option should have been considered, arguing that a detention pond could hinder the city’s ongoing work to revitalize the downtown area. Following Thursday’s meeting, Long contended that a detention pond will “take our prime real estate in the downtown area.”

Wolfe said following Thursday’s meeting that she would have liked to have seen bids on an underground stormwater control option, despite the insistence of some on the council and among city staff that underground stormwater control is routinely more expensive than above-ground options.