Library officials looking for temporary quarters

Wanted: A temporary home for Cathlamet's Bradley Memorial Library.

Town officials plan to have the town hall building remodeled this year, and they want to move the library to temporary quarters while the work goes on.

"We want to keep the library open and intact the entire time of construction," Mayor George Wehrfritz said Monday. "We will have to move."

Wehrfritz, Librarian Connie Christopher and members of the Cathlamet Library Advisory Board are searching the Cathlamet area for temporary quarters.

The library collection totals about 15,000 books and other items, Christopher said. The library is roughly 1,500 square feet in size.

If they can't find a large enough space, they will have to store some of the collection, she said.

Besides its books and movies, the library also has community computers with WiFi access, and it also provides quarters for a teen program.

The renovation work will involve installation of new wiring and carpeting in the library. Wehrfritz said it doesn't make sense to try to work around the collection and shelves while tearing the walls apart.

The work will relocate the main entrance to the library to the Columbia Street side of the building. The lower story of the building will be remodeled into a community center and archives for town government.

The town is preparing to issue a request for proposals for archetectural services, and architects have been looking over the building the past two weeks. Wehrfritz said the council will go over the proposals and pick a firm as soon as possible.

The firm will create the final design and construction blue prints, with a call for construction bids coming in the summer and construction possibly occuring around September.

Once officials have found a temporary location, Christopher will begin planning the move.

"It will have to be carefully planned," she said. "We'll be asking for a lot of volunteers to help."

In her annual report for 2011, Christopher said that adult and youth customers checked out over 13,250 books and movies, an average over 1,100 per month.

About two thirds of the patrons live outside the town limits; one third live inside the town.

Over 30 volunteers donated over 1,800 hours in 2011, an in-kind value of $36,000, she said.

Public computer sessions averaged over 120 per month in 2011, the report says.

Christopher said this week that the library is one of the first places new residents of the area visit and begin to get involved in community life.