The DeKalb Public Library Board of Trustees met June 29, 2011 with Owner Services Group, Inc. to hear a proposal for the Oakbrook Terrace based firm to be the owner’s representative for an expansion of the existing library on Oak Street (see video below). An owner’s representative is very much like a construction manager.
It appears that Nagle-Hartray of Chicago has been selected as the architect for the project. Nagle-Hartray designed the library in Oak Park and another in Evanston. Owner Services Group, Inc. has worked with Nagle-Hartray on numerous projects, according to Graham Harwood.
The DeKalb Library has a pending purchase of property adjacent to the current library at 309 Oak Street. It did not include any property acquisition expenditure in its budget that was just approved by the DeKalb city council.
Public comment was not included in the agenda for this special meeting of the board.
…developing
Also read:
Daily Chronicle report on land purchase
City Barbs review on the Library’s project
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4 Comments
I’m sure there will be an independent traffic study to determine site feasibility, methods of rerouting traffic, incoming and outgoing egress, pedestrian safety and all that. 🙄
Again I think this is a system error and very poor strategy from a public relations standpoint but I don’t think any of the DeKalb citizens trying to get a new library built are crooks trying to line their pockets. They’re wanting the best for the community as they see it. Who wouldn’t want a new library if we could afford it?
Mark Charvat captured this video of last year’s (2010) public hearing on the budget. It contains many of my concerns on the legal issues and the reasons why the statutes should be followed:
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I’m not so optimistic, although at least we have a new states attorney this time around and the city has a different attorney. Maybe that will make a difference if it gets that far…I hope it doesn’t. Very simply, the city council has economic power to deny much of what this renegade library board wants to do. Perhaps some of the new aldermen could request a review or investigation by city staff? Or perhaps a faster, simpler way would be for Mayor Povlsen to appoint new members to the library board with advise and consent of the new city council. At least council can (and should) call this board to account and cause them to start running the library in an open and transparent business-like manner.
Closing Third Street at this location would be foolhardy. As if traffic flow isn’t confusing and constricted enough in downtown DeKalb! An overpass connecting two buildings on either side of Third Street would overcome the problem, but would be expensive (not to mention expensive new buildings). In any event, the library needs new leadership. This unit of appointed government needs to come out of the dark.
If a portion of 3rd St is going to be lost to this, the mess of one-way streets in that area MUST be converted to two-way streets otherwise there will be chaos. This will involve losing on-street parking. Everybody who is impacted by this must be consulted first.
I’ll reserve judgment on the rest of the plan until more details are known. Not that I’m optimistic that the library is actually going to release any information based on their pattern of record keeping so far.
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Does anybody really use that part of third street? It really doesn’t go anywhere and most people I know avoid cobblestone roads (I find them sort of fun to drive on…). That being said, I expect more information to come out after the 120 day due-diligence period. It’s not like anything can get done till after that point any way.