PORT TOWNSEND — Port Townsend Library officials will field questions about a $9 million renovation project — and anything else participants want to talk about — at an inaugural community meeting Tuesday.
The 7 p.m. meeting at the library, 1220 Lawrence St., is the first in a monthly program that will allow community members to both ask questions and provide input about library service.
“We want to create a two-way communications channel between the library and the community, so anyone can come in here and ask any question they want,” said Director Theresa Percy.
Subsequent meetings will be the third Tuesday of each month.
Percy expects one of the main topics of conversation to be the library renovation project, which is projected to be completed in time for the building’s centennial in 2013.
“People have a lot of questions about the project, so we want to give them an opportunity to get them answered,” Percy said.
“They can go over the plans and see exactly what we are doing.”
It will be a two-way street, where people can make suggestions about what should be in the new library.
“We haven’t thought of everything, and we are willing to listen to any new ideas,” Percy said.
The new design seeks to preserve the old Carnegie building while renovating the interior and tearing down a previous addition to construct a new building.
The new building will take up an entire block behind the current library.
Funds already pledged or received include $750,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for seismic protection, $3.5 million from the U.S. Rural Development division, $375,000 from the state’s heritage capital projects fund, $500,000 in city appropriations and $300,000 in private contributions.
The new building and the old will be linked with the Charles Pink House to create a library campus.
It will increase the size of the library to nearly 30,000 square feet — double its current size, Percy said.
“We want to show people how this space will be used so they can understand what we will do with three stories,” Percy said.
One of the most exciting parts of the plan, Percy said, is the return of the room that is now being used as a reference room to its original purpose, that of a large community meeting room.
Percy said she got the idea for regular meetings from Blue Heron Middle School, which once scheduled weekly evening open houses in which parents could visit and ask any question they wanted about the school.
She does not know how many people will take advantage of this opportunity and concedes that few people could show up at first.
“It might take awhile to catch on,” she said.
“But we’ll give it at least a few months to see how it does.”
She does expect that the meetings will result in “stimulating and enlightening conversation” for attendees.
“We want to hear what people are thinking so we can help shape the future of the library,” she said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.