For almost 10 years, the future of Concord’s Penacook library branch has been subject to the whims of fate.
In 2009, potential closure loomed in the face of harsh budget cuts and a harsher economic climate. A motion to restore some funding and cut hours – as well as a public hearing with over 100 attendees advocating for the library’s future – kept it alive.
In 2013, there was chatter about the branch moving to the former tannery site, along with a proposed assisted living home.
Now, the library – a two-story brick structure that still bears a stone “Police Station” engraving on its facade – is facing more questions about its future. And it may be more mobile than you think.
The problem is money and space: Concord library director Todd Fabian said the building will need $300,000 to $400,000 worth of repairs in the coming years that range from replacing the boiler to fixing the roof and the entrance ramp.
The question becomes whether Penacook residents want to spend their tax dollars on a building lacking in space – it’s got about one and a half rooms if you count the children’s room and not the upstairs space used for storage – and no ADA accessible program rooms, Fabian said.
“You have to ask if it’s the best use of funds,” he said. “…The building’s not suddenly going to fall apart, but it’s not going to be usable in the next few years if we don’t address the building or move to a new space. We don’t want to be left without a plan B.”
Fabian has come up with a few ideas. Moving to a new space in Penacook is the dream, he said, but costly and difficult to achieve. Option No. 2 is to eat the cost and repair the building.
Option No. 3 is quite a departure – to see if the Boscawen Public Library, a hop, skip and a jump over the Penacook town border, would be open to a consortium. But Fabian said that idea also has barriers, like how the two library systems would communicate with each other and the fact that Boscawen also doesn’t have its own programming space.
And then there’s Option No. 4, which is literally a departure: A bookmobile roaming Penacook for the same hours the brick and mortar structure is open.
Fabian has said he is partial to the bookmobile idea due to its mobility and flexibility. And this wouldn’t be your grandma’s bookmobile (and if your grandma lived in Concord in the 1970s, which is when the city’s bookmobile was in operation, ask her about it); this rig would be wheelchair accessible, custom built and would deliver both tomes and technology.
But Penacook library community members’ sentiments are mixed.
“Time to rise up and be heard, Penacook. Your Concord Public Library branch is about to roll away,” wrote Scott Preston Hardy in an April “Letter to the Editor,” to the Monitor.
“A bookmobile might work in mountainous, rural or remote regions,” Hardy continued. “However, it’s a mighty poor excuse for a library branch in Penacook Village. We’re talking about a glorified ice cream truck that dispenses books instead of scoops. I can just see it now, ‘Want that mystery novel on a waffle cone, Gladys? How ’bout some jimmies to sweeten the plot?’”
Patrons Corinne and Robert Cassavaugh, fresh off of picking up Corinne’s latest borrow (Anna Quindlen), were skeptical of the idea, too. At 87 and 90 years of age, respectively, they’d lived the majority of their lives in Penacook and a good portion of that just moments from the library.
“We’d heard they might be closing it,” Corinne Cassavaugh said. “I don’t want that. …It’s convenient, you don’t have to go into Concord.”
“I can’t imagine they’d be able to fit a lot of books,” Robert Cassavaugh added.
And library technician Kathy Dill, seated behind the Penacook branch’s main desk, said she was attached to the idea of a permanent space, cramped as the current location is. She’d prefer more computers and a little more space.
“The idea of a bookmobile is flashy and modern,” she said, “but I don’t know if it’s the best option.”
Fabian’s had a different experience; he said residents have been mostly positive or curious about the bookmobile. He’s heard people’s concerns, too, and said the bookmobile idea is meant to be temporary until a more permanent solution is found.
It’s possible people’s resistance to a bookmobile is rooted in a simple fear, he said: That once it’s gone, a permanent branch might not come back.
“I can’t read the tea leaves,” he said. “Funding changes, plans change, things could be totally different in 10 years.
“I get it,” he said of people’s concern. “A physical space cements a library to the village. I’m sure some people don’t like that idea as much as a guaranteed physical space.”
Ward 1 Councilor Brent Todd said there’s a strong desire to see library services available at the local level. He compared it to the city’s efforts to have pools and parks in most neighborhoods instead of closing and consolidating.
“I’d like to continue that train of thought and expand services if that’s feasible,” he said.
Todd also encourages residents to get involved and raise their voices on the subject. They’ll have the chance to do so Tuesday when the Penacook Village Association holds a meeting on the library’s future at the Rolfe House on 11 Penacook St. starting at 6 p.m.
Todd said he would like to see a stationary library remain. But regardless of what happens next, Todd was pretty certain the physical building the library is in will remain a part of the village.
“I think if we started thinking about shuttering the library, and the building was to be sold, it would be with the sole provision that it can’t be dismantled or anything,” he said. “It’s architecturally significant to Penacook.”
Speaking of libraries and significant historical buildings, if you’d like to know more about the story behind the Concord Theatre, your chance is coming up.
Local author Paul Brogan will be leading a talk at the Concord Public Library on Thursday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on his upcoming book, which delves into the history of the theater from 1933 to 1994.
Joe Gleason will be present to discuss its future, which includes a roughly $5.2 million overhaul by the Capital Center for the Arts and local developer Steve Duprey.
Heads up School Street parking garage patrons: the layout is about to flip while construction continues.
Permit parking spaces will be located on floors 1-3 and metered spaces will be on floors 4-5 starting Monday. In the event no permit spaces are available, permit parkers will be able to use the metered spaces free of charge.
The “customer only” parking spaces on level 1 will also change. Those spots typically reserved for Capital Plaza I & II will be converted to “visitor spaces” for specific building tenants, except for tenants of PRM/Inex.
The switch is due to the ongoing work to renovate the School Street garage.
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)