The Penacook Branch Library has been closed for nearly two years because the tiny, older building lacks both space for social distancing and adequate ventilation.
Although library programming geared toward Penacook residents has successfully continued online, in other buildings and outdoors, the branch’s woes will not end even after COVID cases decline.
In early 2022, the Board of Library Trustees will make a recommendation to the City Council about how to address long-standing issues with the library’s structure.
Concord Public Library Director Todd Fabian believes it’s important to maintain a physical library presence in Penacook, but fixing the current space or finding a new space would cost taxpayers, who already have a higher tax rate in Penacook than in Concord.
“We’re trying to get a feel from the council now,” Fabian said. “I have ideas, the trustees can have ideas but we don’t have the checks. This library has been a challenge for many decades now.”
Making the building ADA accessible and bringing it up to modern standards is a daunting undertaking.
“It’s an old police station, it was never meant to be a library and certainly not up to 2021 or 2022 standards,” Fabian said. “Concord and Penacook residents deserve better than what we have there.”
The two-story brick building still has empty prisoner cells in its basement. An 80-page report prepared by The H.L. Turner Group Inc. in fall 2020 outlines glaring issues with the space, like a lack of parking, a dilapidated ramp and a boiler and HVAC system that needs upgrades.
Jay Burgess, Concord’s superintendent for public properties, said that upgrades to make the building useable for another 10 to 15 years would cost a little over $900,000. That estimate is nearly three times the property’s current valuation of $330,900.
A ballpark figure for building a new library of the current branch’s size is $1.5 million, Burgess said. That’s a pre-pandemic estimate that the city calculates based on square feet.
“Right now it’s sort of hard to say, because there are some elements in construction that are not available at any price,” Burgess said.
Fabian said he is always looking for property to house a new Penacook library.
“We don’t need a full-service fancy branch. We just need something we can provide library services, like we do in the Heights,” Fabian said.
At the Concord Heights Community Center on Canterbury Road, staff wheel out library shelves from a supply closet on the days when the pop-up library is open. That model could be used for Penacook too.
Other options considered in the past include a mobile bookmobile and a merger with Boscawen’s library, which is less than a mile away from the current Penacook branch.
Fabian said when he presented the bookmobile idea to Penacook residents a few years ago, it did not get a warm reception.
Although a bookmobile has its perks – like the ability to reach residents at softball games or community events – such vehicles have short life spans, and there is not an obvious location for storage.
A collaboration between the Boscawen library and the Penacook branch faces technical obstacles, like how to reconcile different operating and payment systems. Boscawen’s library is small, located on the 3rd floor of the town’s police station. Working out a system to divide tax dollars between the two municipalities could be complicated.
Since the branch closed, Penacook residents have been able to access library programs outside of the Merrimack Street location, including virtually. The Concord library maintains a host of online resources, including audiobooks, free digital access to many major newspapers and resources for kids’ learning.
Outdoor storytelling times at nearby Rolfe Park have been well-attended, and other library activities took place at the Penacook Community Center, which will be dissolving as an organization and merging with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central New Hampshire over the next few months. Fabian said the library is currently “scrambling” to find new spaces for programming.
Recently, a return bin has been reopened outside the Penacook branch to better evaluate how many residents rely on that location.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed to reflect these is no meeting regarding the library this week. This incorrect information was contained in the caption of a file photo.