An initial investment of about $11,500 will be made to repair the leaking walls at the Shawano Public Library.
Shawano County Library Board members agreed Jan. 18 to have members of the county highway department repair the northeast corner of the building. Another repair project of about $130,000, if necessary, would be done in the summer months.
Jim Davel, county administrative coordinator, suggested the library board have a “tactical pause” between the initial $11,5000 project and the other $130,000 repair project to get a better understanding of what may be needed for that second repair project.
“In conversations I’ve had with (Highway Commissioner) Grant (Bystol) and his team, that might really do the lion’s share of the problem, where we might not have to go down the road,” Davel said, “but we’d have a better understanding after the initial work was done.”
Bystol said his crew would need to get in soon and complete the project sometime in March. The second project could be done in the summer.
“That conference room in the northeast corner of the building, I think that’s where the bulk of the problem is,” he said. “I believe there’s still outlying issues, basically encompassing the whole library, north side, south side, the emergency exit on the southeast corner.
“We identified in the conference room on the northeast corner, basically we would do a removal of the interior insulation, drywall, the tongue and groove, identify how many cracks are there and get a better look at the joints between the Spancrete and the poured wall.”
Bystol believed that would take care of most of the issues of water leaking through the foundation.
“However, if you go to the exterior wall, and look at the north side, you’ve got the concrete tipping back the wrong way,” Bystol said. You have buildings to the north with no gutters, all that water running off. You’ve got a fair amount of issues on the exterior. I think the interior work would get most of it, but I can’t guarantee that. That’s where the other $130,000 is.”
Davel again urged the board to consider the future of the library.
Shawano County is in the initial phase of considering a new multi-use government center and a justice center. Any decision to move forward with those will require a two-thirds vote of the county board.
“We believe you should be in a constant state of fundraising for whatever it is for the library,” Davel said.
Library board member Marsha Hoeffs asked him to clarify that if these repairs are made whether there would be a need for the library to find a new home.
“I don’t believe there’s any course of action that you’re going to move out of the library,” he said.
Davel said the extent of any extensive remodeling effort of the library has yet to be fully examined and discussed by any county committee. There were recommendations made in a facility assessment report by Somerville Architects and Engineers, but those have not been acted on by anyone.
“I’m all in on let’s address that issue, get it taken care of and move forward, but we can’t just sit and do nothing,” said Supervisor Jerry Edrmann. “That building isn’t going to do the county one bit of good if we don’t correct the problems. You can’t let your buildings deteriorate.”
The $11,500 would be paid by library board’s contingency fund. The other $130,000 would have to be discussed with the county board.
Davel reminded board members that estimates are only for repairs, not putting back anything that has to be removed in the process of making those repairs.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
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