A Libertyville architect Wednesday proposed the Cook Memorial Library solve its overcrowding by moving to the Brainerd Building, which is part of the Libertyville High School campus.
Speaking at a public meeting called by the Cook library district, Mike Kollman said the 82-year-old Brainerd Building, east of the high school, offers the location and available space needed to create a bigger central library for the area.
“The most economical, cost-effective and productive solution would be to build and operate a single facility large enough to handle the needs of the district for the next 25 to 30 years,” said Kollman, who has taken a lead in suggesting an expansion plan for the library district.
Kollman owns an architecture firm in Prairie View and said he has worked on two library projects in other districts.
Libertyville residents have been pressuring library trustees to rule out any plan to build a new central library in Vernon Hills and essentially turn the Cook Memorial Library into a branch.
The library district placed a building referendum on the March 17 ballot proposing such a plan, but it was defeated by a 3-1 margin. Since then, library trustees have been soliciting new construction ideas from residents.
Kollman has come up with the only concrete proposal for expanding the district’s facilities.
But library district President Joe Bean said Wednesday he has doubts about the viability of Kollman’s proposal. He and other trustees question whether it would make sense to abandon the Cook Memorial Library to relocate a short distance away.
Bean also said he is reluctant to put too much faith in the Brainerd Building because it is not for sale. Libertyville High School plans to vacate the structure sometime after 1999, when a new high school will open in Vernon Hills and the aging building will no longer be needed.
But high school officials have told the library district it could be three or four years before they decide what to do with Brainerd.
The Brainerd building is 67,000 square feet and has room for a 23,000-square-foot addition, according to Kollman.
In addition to listening to residents’ comments Wednesday, library trustees used the meeting to explain how they came to place a building proposal on the ballot in March.
Bean said the district began discussing the space constraints at Cook Memorial Library in 1987 and spent the next 10 years considering solutions. The ideas included expanding the current site, building in Vernon Hills or a combination of the two.
Trustee Cam Hock said the latest public meeting and a voter survey that will be conducted later this summer are signs the library district accepted the defeat and wants to move on.
“I really do want input from the people,” she said.
Library trustees have no timetable for voting on a new building proposal, but Hock said there is some urgency. Cook Memorial Library, which is 33,000 square feet, will run out of shelf space for new books within the next 10 months, she said.
Hock said the library is reluctant to stop new acquisitions or reduce seating to create more shelf space. So trustees are considering several plans to place some books in storage until new space is found.
The library district includes Libertyville, most of Vernon Hills, parts of Mundelein and the communities of Green Oaks, Indian Creek and Mettawa.
