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Ashland lists library attributes Architects will offer a composite vision By JOHN DARLING ASHLAND -- After a week of citizen input and two public workshops with architects, boosters of a new Ashland library have a clear ``want" list -- and they're ready to use it. The consensus seems to point to keeping the look and feel of the the historic 1912 Carnegie library, while sprucing it up and expanding it. Representatives from SERA Architects of Portland took suggestions from about 100 Ashland residents at the Hillah Temple last week and held two Saturday workshops with the library steering committee, during which they narrowed a field of nine models down to two, said Barbara Ryberg, president of Friends of the Library. The architects will return March 8 and present the steering committee with one model, integrating all the best suggestions, and firm costs. People indicated a refurbished library should grow -- from the current 7,500 square feet to at least 21,000; the new part should be two stories, no higher than the old part; and it should carry out the aesthetic theme of the original. The segment of the old building remodeled in 1954 would be removed, said Mayor Cathy Shaw, and parking would increase from 14 to 34 spaces through buying and leveling an office complex to the south and widening the alley behind the library. In the week following the March 8 meeting, further changes in the design would be made by the steering committee, which includes members from the city planning department, historic commission, library neighbors, nearby businesses and Friends of the Library. Then the project goes to the City Council March 16 for a decision about placing it on the May ballot. "The council has been very favorable on this," said Shaw, "and it's my hope it will pass." The proposal would involve floating bonds for an expansion estimated at $62 to $120 per square foot, said Ryberg. At 21,000 square feet, early ballpark estimates would be $1.3 to $2.5 million. Meanwhile, the rest of the 14-branch Jackson County library system is moving ahead with a countywide levy request for the March 2000 ballot to build a new headquarters library in Medford. Plans call for rebuilding about half of the libraries in the system and refurbishing the rest, said County Administrator Burke Raymond. This could lead to a situation, he added, where Ashland residents may vote twice on the expansion of the Ashland library, once in May and again as part of the countywide plan next year. The county may include the Ashland plans in its proposal to voters, Raymond said, even if the Ashland request passes. If the county measure passes, the county could pick up part or all of the Ashland debt, although he said the county would not pay to meet higher construction standards than those set for the other branches. "That would be negotiated between Ashland and the county," he said. If the countywide measure fails, he said, then Ashland will just sell its own bonds. Ashland stepped out ahead of the county last fall, said Greg Scoles, assistant city administrator, because "we wanted to move quicker than the county." Although county officials earlier said they wanted Ashland to join them in a united countywide bond campaign for new or refurbished libraries, the two entities are now working amicably together, Scoles said. The county has retained Portland architects Fletcher Farr & Ayotte under a $147,000 contract to produce designs and dollar estimates by April 30 for the headquarters library and the branch remodel-replacements. During the week of citizen input in Ashland, citizens and the Ashland Historic Commission were adamant about preserving the city's Carnegie library, Shaw said. "The library is in a historic district, so the new structure must complement, but not mimic the old." (Julie Swensen contributed to this story.) Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA