Polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 2

By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
What can $9.1 million get you? A larger library, among other things.
Subject to voter approval on Nov. 2, the plan has been public since 2019, fits on the library’s property and has the same five goals as the plan voted on in 2020.
“The only thing that has changed is we did recently do a rework to the youth services room,” Bryan Cloutier, Oxford Public Library director, said. “After we had met with the township supervisor and the township planner, there was some concern about whether we could get an easement — a permanent easement — from Oxford Community Schools to continue using their service drive. We understood that concern and reached out to administration at the school district to request a written easement. They were not able to accommodate that, but they did state that we could absolutely continue to use their service drive as long as they don’t change the use of their property.”
To accommodate OCS’ unwillingness to grant the easement, the youth expansion was pulled away from the property line and changed the configuration. A patio is planned for the space between the building and the property line, which can be changed to a service drive if OCS no longer allows library staff to use its service drive.
With the service drive issue more or less sorted, no easements are required should the plan be approved.
The expansion will warrant more parking space, which will be done by extending the parking lot toward Pontiac St. This will be covered by the $500,000 – $700,000 budgeted to replace the HVAC system and the roof — two projects that will occur regardless of how the bond vote goes.
The current system is regularly inspected and maintained, though as they age the library believes the cost of maintenance is now higher than the cost of replacement.