(Part 2 of a two part series)
After chronicling Oxford Public Library’s 95 year history at a fireside chat the evening of Feb. 10, Library Director Bryan Cloutier assessed the library’s present and looked to its future.
As of a few years ago, the building constructed in 1996 at 530 Pontiac St. is completely paid off.
The library runs on two operational millages, voted in perpetuity. “That means the people of this community made the conscientious decision many years ago to continuously support public library funding in this community through these operational millages,” Cloutier expounded. “That says a lot about a community because there are only a handful of communities throughout the state that have millages in perpetuity.”
However, since “governments tend to fall behind the economic curve” the library’s budget has only recently recovered from the economic recession to where it was before 2008.
“We’re still not completely whole from where we were, but we’re very close to that,” Cloutier said. He commended the board and staff for doing “an excellent job at maintaining the level of service we’ve become accustomed to even through the poor economic times.”
Now that the library is at a “good place” again financially, they are looking toward expanding.
Over the past year the library board has met with the building’s original architect, Seth Penchasky, who is now a principal at Daniels and Zermack in Ann Arbor. With Penchansky’s history and knowledge of the building, they have collaborated on a plan for the future.
Cloutier says they have learned some things over the years. The children’s department is “way too small” for a community of this size. And “the library itself functions significantly different than it did five years ago or ten years ago or let alone 95 years ago.”
They looked at the building’s footprint to see how they could “utilize the pre-existing envelope to better serve the public and to bring the future vision into play.”
They have decided to switch the circulation room with the children’s department. The circulation room is behind the front desk where patrons check out books. There would be an addition built to expand this area.
The current children’s room will also house the executive board room. When staff are not using it, they could open it up to small board meetings for community use.
They plan to expand the adult room by adding three additional quiet study rooms, another small board room, additional public restrooms, and a dedicated local history room with its own archives so they can maintain Oxford history.
“This facility as it is today is not conducive to a proper archive,” Cloutier said. He wants a facility that can not only maintain what they already have, but help to grow it as well. The local history room will house all of the rarer books that are behind lock and key right now.
They plan to develop a Michigan and local history collection from “a very generous donation” they received “for collection development.”
They are working to finalize the plans and budget. Once finalized they will bring a proposal to the Oxford Township Board for approval at the March 11 meeting. If the language is approved, the proposal will appear on the August ballot.
Should the proposal succeed, Cloutier anticipates they would levy bonds in early 2021 and break ground that spring. Since they don’t plan on closing the library at all, the project will be done in phases, lasting about 18 months from start to finish. They would open up completed sections as they go, but it wouldn’t be completely finished until early 2023.
“The Oxford Public Library has a very bright future ahead of it,” Cloutier concluded. “I’m looking forward to, with your help, taking that vision and making it part of the next 95 years.”