Westwood library job going to Town Meeting next year

The library trustees will get a special Town Meeting for the new library project, but not as soon as they would have liked, selectmen decided last night.

The trustees were hoping for a November special Town Meeting, followed by a December special election, to consider the new library, whose cost was loosely estimated at $12 million last night.

Selectmen agreed to bring the project before voters, but said they wanted to put off the Town Meeting until sometime between Feb. 8 and March 1, with a Proposition 2 1/2 debt-exclusion override to follow in the town election in April.

Cost estimates were made public for the first time last night for the new building, which would be paid for with nearly $4 million in state grants and "about an $8 million bond," said Library Trustee Dan Lehan.

He added that private fundraising would hopefully reduce the town's $8 million share; the library fundraising campaign has a $1 million goal.

Relaying an estimate from Finance Director Pamela Dukeman, Lehan said the library would cost the average Westwood home $92 per year, for a bond lasting 20 years, in a 2 1/2 override. That is based on a conservative 5 percent interest rate.

Lehan made his board's case to selectmen, saying the library has run out of space for new books and programs in its 40-year-old facility on High Street. Its handicapped access is also substandard.

"If we get a donation of a new book, then we have to eliminate a book that's already in use," Lehan said.

He said the library project would be "in the spotlight" at a special Town Meeting, where it would likely be the major issue, as opposed to an annual Town Meeting in the spring.

"We're ready. We want to develop the library. We want to show the town what we've done. We want them to make an informed decision," Lehan said. "If this issue is in the spotlight, in isolation, we'll be able to address any concerns and explain to the citizens why we think this is taxpayer money that's well spent. If it's caught in the muck of all the issues that come up annually, it's going to be really difficult for us to illustrate that point to the entire town."

Lehan pointed out that financing and construction costs are very low, and that the town needs to approve the project by June 15 or lose its $4 million in state funding: "If we lose that grant, how long will it be before it rolls around again is anybody's guess."

The new library, at 32,000 square feet, would be built on the same site as the old one, which is 18,000 square feet.

Selectmen Chairman Philip Shapiro said he favors the project, adding that he agrees with Library Director Tom Viti's point "that the town could make a better informed decision having a Town Meeting, with several hours of discussion, prior to an election."

But, he said, there are other issues surrounding the project that have nothing to do with books or meeting space. He said that Finance Commission Chairman Mary Masi-Phelps had suggested possibly holding the special Town Meeting in February, which Shapiro said would provide more time to work on "subsidiary items" such as the historic Colburn School, which would need to be moved from the library site.

More importantly, Shapiro said, fiscal year 2011 is shaping up to be "a very difficult year" across Massachusetts, including in Westwood.

"We don't know how bad, and we don't know exactly what the causes are - whether it's that there's no magic down University Avenue, or that the state cuts back local aid, or that there's no new growth in town, or that people aren't registering new cars. We have a whole series of vulnerabilities in the fiscal year '11 budget," he said.

If the library project were to be taken up this fall, the town would have little idea of what is coming in fiscal 2011, he said. "All we could say is it looks like '11's going to be really bad, and we're either going to have service cuts or an override," he said.

But by February, "we'll have some idea of what the outlines might be, and people can make a more informed decision," said Shapiro, who proposed a special Town Meeting on Feb. 8, followed by the town election in April.

Selectmen Philip Ahearn and Nancy Hyde agreed with the gist of Shapiro's proposal, but the board did not set a date for the special Town Meeting. They did say, however, that it would be sometime between Feb. 8 and March 1.

"Well, I'm disappointed, but I understand their reasoning, certainly," Library Trustees Chairman Karen Coffey said afterward. "There's a lot of things facing the town, and we'll know better by February."

Daily News staff writer Edward B. Colby can be reached at 781-433-8336 or ecolby@cnc.com.