Q: What happens to the current facility when the new library in Olde Town opens?
A: The Library has been leasing the building at W. 57th Avenue and Dover Street from the City of Arvada. When the Arvada Library opens in Olde Town, the current building will be turned over to the city. As the owner of the building, the city will determine its future use.
Q: What does the city plan to do with the building?
A: As you might expect, this is a city decision. To find out more about the city's plans, contact Phil Hensley, Manager of Facilities for the City of Arvada, at 720-898-7681.
Q: Do you know when this library will close?
A: The library at this location will close in the weeks prior to the opening of the new library in Olde Town. The early closure will allow us to pack up and move books, materials, computers and other library-owned items. We estimate that this will happen in late summer 2006.
Q: Do you know when something new will open there?
A: The Manager of Facilities Phil Hensley with the City of Arvada (720-898-7681).is your best bet for finding out the city's plans for this location, including when something new might be located here.
Q: How does Jefferson County Public Library plan to deal with the parking issue in Olde Town?
A: The City of Arvada is funding the addition of a public city parking lot next to the new Arvada Library. Jefferson County Public Library and the city have conducted parking analyses that show the new parking lot will provide ample parking for visitors to the new library for use by library patrons. There are also several hundred nearby public parking spaces within reasonable walking distance to the library, all already available in Olde Town.
For convenience there will be a drop-off area for visitors directly in front of the new Arvada Library entrance on 57th Avenue. In addition, there will be a convenient drive-up book drop in the alley behind the facility and a walk-up book drop at the entrance on 57th Avenue. Handicapped parking is planned next to the library on Webster Street.
Q: Why didn't the Library stay in this current location and just enlarge the building?
A: The size of the current library does not allow us to meet community needs, so a change was needed. The City of Arvada leases the current building to the Library. During planning, the Library carefully researched the cost of renovating the current building. As it turns out, renovation, or even tearing down the current facility and building a new library at the same location, were not cost-effective options. The building site is just too small. Even if we could have made the size of the space work, Arvada residents would have lost up to two years of library service during renovation. In addition, the city's 1999 Olde Town Renaissance process yielded a recommendation from citizens to locate a new facility in Olde Town to enhance the economic health of the southern area of Arvada.
The good news is that the new library is going to offer so much more than we could offer at the Dover location. There will be space for more materials, a quiet reading area, special areas for teen, children and adult programming, more computers-and a wonderful location in the heart of Arvada. We're not going away-the Arvada Library staff is also moving to the new location.
Q: Did you get taxpayer input before you made this decision to move the library?
A: A citizen's advisory committee made up of Arvada residents helped Jefferson County Public Library identify issues it should consider in selecting a site for a new library. After analyzing the committee's recommendations, Jefferson County Public Library decided a library could be built in Olde Town that addressed the committee's suggestions and the community's needs.
To give you an idea of how seriously Jefferson County Public Library took citizen input, the advisory committee gave the issue of adequate parking a high level of importance. As a result, this was a major condition the library administration and board placed on the idea of an Olde Town location. Adequate parking had to be included in the plan before the Library would give final approval to proceed.
Q: I still want someone to talk to in the library's administration.
A: Library Manager Larry Domingues, would be happy to talk with you. You can also direct questions to Marcellus Turner, Deputy County Librarian, 303-275-6172.
Q: How is Jefferson County Public Library going to pay for the new library in Olde Town Arvada?
A: Funding for the new library will come from three sources: Jefferson County Public Library, the City of Arvada and Jefferson County.
The city contributed the library site and is paying for the cost of the parking lot, which will be used by library patrons as well as shoppers and visitors to Olde Town. The Arvada Urban Renewal Authority is funding a renovation to the Olde Town Square, which is next to the new library building site.
Jefferson County Public Library will pay the $9.9 million needed to design, construct, furnish and equip the new library. These building costs are financed with certificates of participation (COPs). The Library bundled COP issuance with other county building projects for cost-efficiency. The COPs were issued at a competitive public auction and purchased by investors at an annual interest rate of 4.1 percent. Jefferson County Public Library will repay the COPs in no more than 20 years, at an annual cost of $750,000.
In addition to the $750,000 mortgage payment, the Library will incur an additional $500,000 per year in operating costs for the new facility. These ongoing operating costs will be paid from the Library's fund balance (its savings account) and from a $1 million contribution from the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners.
Q: In 2000, JCPL asked voters to raise its mill-levy to 5 mills, and the proposal was defeated. It included funds for a new Arvada Library, yet now the library is paying most of the cost of the new facility from its fund balance. Why did the library ask voters for money it apparently didn't need?
A: The 2000 ballot proposal incorporated a comprehensive plan for Jefferson County Public Library. It had many components of which a new Arvada Library was only a portion. It included funds for a new library in southwest Jefferson County at South Kipling and West Nassau, purchase of sites for future libraries in West Arvada and far-south Jefferson County, expansion of the Golden Library, and renovation of the aging Lakewood Library. It also included significant increases in funding for books, materials and online resources and extended weekend hours for full-service libraries to be open.
When the proposal was defeated, the Library tightened expenditures to keep a strong fund balance. A new Arvada Library had been the highest priority for capital improvements in the 2000 ballot proposal. Library leadership believed that the southern part of the city had received library service below county standards for too long. At 9,700 square feet, the Arvada Library at Dover Street is by far the smallest of seven full-service libraries. It has no community meeting room, no study rooms for small groups, too few computers, too small a collection of books and materials, and sub-standard handicapped accessibility. So Jefferson County Public Library made construction of a new facility its highest priority and chose to spend a large share of its fund balance on this project.
At the same time, Jefferson County Public Library is seeing increasing business across the county. The 10 library locations (including the seven full-service libraries and three smaller community libraries) and the Bookmobile had nearly 2 ½ million visitors in 2005. Books and materials were checked out more than 5.5 million times, a 30 percent increase over 2004. Library patrons viewed Online Library pages 2.5 million times, a 14 percent increase over 2004. And usage continues to grow in 2006. Jefferson County Public Libraries are among the busiest venues in the county.
About one third of library patrons use more than one library. We expect the new Arvada Library to attract some of these users and allow us to provide better service countywide. At the same time, the Jefferson County Public Library budget will become tighter as revenues fall short of meeting increased business. We expect this tightening will challenge library leadership and the Jefferson County community to find ways to keep service levels high and keep the Library as a major community asset.