RUTLAND — Seeking an epic story? The Rutland Free Library can offer Homer’s “The Odyssey,” a sprawling saga of angry gods and mythical monsters. Or J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit,” a page-turner rife with man-eating trolls and boulder-throwing giants. Or J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, a seven-part crusade against an evil wizard and a deadly curse.
Then again, library director Randal Smathers can tell you the equally adventurous true story of trying to hold space for them all.
Smathers oversees a 76,000-book collection in an 1858 building that, until 1935, housed the city’s post office, courthouse and jail. The holding cells in the basement have since morphed into secure storage. But for current caretakers, the four floors above continue to call for hard labor.
Take a tour past the brightly-lit bookshelves and Smathers, unlocking doors to the cellar and attic, reveals the crumbling foundation and sagging ceilings of a structure whose cornerstone was set before the American Civil War.
“The building needs work — a lot of work,” Smathers said amid cracked plaster and rusting iron. “It’s not one thing, it’s everything.”
More than 30 Vermont libraries have launched renovation projects since 2010, the state reports. Manchester Community Library moved to a new $7 million facility in 2014. Brandon Free Public Library reopened after a $4 million renovation last year. Middlebury’s Ilsley Public Library is starting a $17 million expansion this winter.
But after 15 years of upgrade attempts, Rutland library leaders, having banked $1.5 million for capital repairs, recently exhaled in exasperation when they learned estimates to renovate their building had risen to nearly 10 times that much.
That’s when Mayor Mike Doenges suggested the library join City Hall in studying the possibility of relocating together in empty space at downtown’s Asa Bloomer state office building on Merchants Row.
The proposed “civic center project” — similar to South Burlington’s shared library and city office building that opened in 2021 — could cut construction costs in half, according to estimates, all while placing municipal services under one roof.
Rutland now is holding a triad of informational forums, with the last set for Feb. 12.
“We don’t have a deal, we don’t have floor plans, we don’t have anything except an idea,” Smathers said. “We are bringing the public into the process as early as we can.”
But the prospect of a less costly, centrally located facility isn’t necessarily an easy sell.
“Top architects told us the public will compare whatever design we put forward to an idealized library they remember when they were children, and that’s absolutely true,” Smathers said. “People start their input with, ‘When I was a kid …’ They form emotional attachments. They love this building. It’s beautiful — and also terrible for a modern library.”
‘Working hard to take public input’
This isn’t the first time the library has faced the prospect of change. The institution, founded in 1886 next door to the proposed Merchants Row location, moved from various storefronts, the since-demolished Memorial Hall and the old Longfellow School to its current site 90 years ago. Residents approved two additions in the 1960s and 1980s. But the facility increasingly is showing its age, spurring its most recent leaders to search for a fix.
In 2009, the library unveiled plans to move to a proposed building at the nearby corner of Center and Wales streets, only to see the project halted by financial hurdles.
In 2014, leaders hired an architect who recommended a top-to-bottom renovation, only to learn it came with an unpalatable price of what at that time was up to $11.4 million.
In 2020, they considered moving to the former College of St. Joseph campus on the city’s outskirts, only to face criticism from downtown supporters before someone else purchased the property.
The current proposal sprouted last spring, when the mayor suggested a study of the four-story state office building that opened in 1995 and now has enough vacant space to house both the library and City Hall offices.
Under the plan, the city would acquire some or all of the block, then remodel it for municipal needs that would include a shared meeting area to replace the library’s Nella Grimm Fox Room and City Hall’s aldermanic chambers.
The library estimates its share of the project would cost $4.5 million — half the estimated $10 million price of renovating its current building — and would lower annual operating costs that now include $20,000 for heat and $22,000 for electricity.
The proposal comes with its own challenges.
“Books are heavy,” the library notes on its website’s “Exploring Relocation” page, “and so library foundations need to be rated at 150 pounds per square inch, roughly double what is normal for commercial construction.”
Public concerns are equally weighty. Residents at meetings this month expressed reservations about finding parking and feeling safe downtown, although Smathers noted those are problems at the current location.
“We have the same issues here as you have down the hill,” he said at the most recent session.
The city also would have to forge an agreement with the state for the new site, hire an architect to develop blueprints and a detailed budget, determine what to do with the old building, and seek a ballot for a municipal bond.
But first, leaders are set to take comments at a final hearing Feb. 12. The story, they know, is far from over.
“We’re doing our due diligence and working hard to take public input,” Smathers said. “But ultimately, the voters will decide.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland’s library is old and outdated. So why is changing that proving so challenging?.