Approval of Palatine`s proposed $15.5 million public library has hit several unexpected stumbling blocks that may delay its construction, library officials said Tuesday.
But the proposal`s difficulties, which have widened the large rift between the village and its library board, will not jeopardize the project, library officials said.
”The library will be built,” said Mary Frances Burns, the Palatine Public Library District`s acting administrative librarian. ”We will work with the village, but (the library) is something we need and something we will get.”
The proposed library, to be built on Northwest Highway at the Office Park of Palatine, is intended to ease the burdens on a library system that serves twice as many people as it was designed to serve. The building would be three times the size of the current one. But Palatine officials are concerned that their village is paying more than its share of the project`s cost.
The library district also includes parts of Hoffman Estates, Inverness and Schaumburg.
Those worries prompted the Village Board on Monday evening to table proposed ordinances requested by the library board until the village`s concerns about the proposal have been addressed.
The district had planned to begin construction in June and finish the building by June 1993. But Palatine`s action may push the start back, Burns said.
”The library board is trying to make it seem like (Village Board trustees) don`t want a library. We do,” said Trustee Jack Wagner. ”But they have some problems to take care of.”
Perhaps the largest hurdle library officials must clear is a long-simmering dispute over the library`s economics.
In 1974, the library district, which at the time served only Palatine, decided it wanted to split from the village and branch out. As a result, it spread into the other suburbs.
That didn`t and still doesn`t sit well with village officials, since the village, which paid for the original library by financing bonds, was stuck with paying the present library`s $1.3 million price tag.
To compound matters, the village, which provides only 50 percent of the library`s users and owes $215,000 on bonds for the present library, also is financing the proposed structure with more bonds.
So when library board officials asked the village for free use of part of the new library`s site, village officials did not take it kindly.
”The residents of Palatine are getting zapped twice,” Wagner said.
”Residents of the village are going to pay for the old and new building.”
The Village Board also has logistical problems with the library.
It is reluctant to grant the library board a zoning variance for the 4.5- acre site because such a large variance would be given to no other project.
Library officials are seeking a variance that would allow them to build the 100,200-square-foot facility on property on which village law would allow up to 87,600 square feet.
The board also has problems with the number of parking spaces the library`s planners have allotted. The proposed 295 parking spots would be 39 spots short under village code, according to officials.
But despite the Village Board`s concerns, Burns said the proposed facility, with room for double the number of books and with more conference rooms, will come to fruition.
”These things can be worked out,” Burns said. ”And they will be.”
