Library closed for seven days as renovation gets underway this month

The Rock County Community Library will be closed for seven days as a planned remodeling project gets underway.
From Tuesday, Jan. 19, through Wednesday, Jan. 27, the library will be closed to patrons. A planned closure was already set for Jan. 18 for Presidents Day.
When the facility reopens Jan. 28, the library will be operating out of the basement until the project is complete.
A limited number of library materials will be available for checkout from the basement location, and Internet will be limited to wireless access only.
“Patrons will need to bring their own devices,” said assistant librarian Barb Verhey. “There will be no computers or laptops available.”
The renovation is expected to be complete by April 1.
Rock County Commissioners approved the renovation bids at their regular meeting Jan. 5.
The consulting firm, Library Consulting LLC out of the Twin Cities, estimated renovation costs at $212,592. Bids came in at $184,233 — $28,000 under budget.
The lower-than-expected bids came under the contractor and contingency line items.
Luverne’s Okie Honken submitted a bid of $10,000 as the project’s contractor. Estimates had contracting at $21,013.
Another savings occurred when the contingency fund was set at $16,000 (11 percent of the project’s cost). The contingency was originally estimated at $30,594.
The savings allowed the library’s board of directors to add items from a “wish list,” which included $11,500 for new children’s library furniture. Original plans repurposed existing furniture for that area.
“What I don’t want us to do is to do all this work and then next year you need another $20,000 for something else,” said Commissioner Jody Reisch, who also serves on the library board.
“Let’s get this show ready and fully functional now instead of nickel-and-diming it later on.”
A budget of $15,000 was set by the commissioners for 13 new computers.
The library’s disposal of its surplus property through an on-line auction site was also approved.
Monies for the library renovation came through the sale of a $1.2 million general obligation bond in 2015. The bond included $175,000 for the county’s list of capital improvement projects.
In its own budget, the library reserved $40,000 for renovations. These monies will be spent first before tapping into the CIP funds.
Any funds left over from the library renovation could go toward the county’s other CIP projects including a computer-aided dispatch system for the sheriff’s office.