By Barbara Brown

North Branch's park board asked the city council to reconsider putting the proposed new library on the lot originally agreed upon.
The cityís parks board asked City Planner Al Cottingham to ask the council to reconsider the site selected for the new library, citing financial and space concerns.

The city had to chose between two sites on which it wanted to build the library. Both sites are near the North Branch Fire Department building on CR 30, on the south end of the city, and are part of a land purchase of about 30 acres. The fire department has 10 acres of that parcel.
One site ñ dubbed the north site ñ sits almost directly behind the fire department.

The north site needs utilities work and a private road to access it.

The city has to deed about 85 feet more property to the county so an access road can be built to the north site, Cottingham told the council Feb. 23.

The north site is about three acres and has natural landscaping made up of shrubberies and trees already on the site.

While some trees will have to be cut down to make room for the library and parking area, the library committee generally agreed that protecting the remaining trees by keeping them part of the library plan would be best.

The second site ñ termed the south site ñ is on the same chunk of land, but just south of the fire hall.

Both sites are suitable for construction, although the southern site already has access to water and sewer, and draining storm water from the site would be easier than at the northern site which requires the installation of storm sewer lines.

That lot has utilities that would be extended from 379th Street, the driveway would be a county cost and storm water could be drained easily into a pond on the site.

Cottingham said he was asked by the parks commission to petition a change of heart from the council because using the north site will spend about $120,000 of the cityís $150,000 library/community center fund.

Another reason for the park commissionís request, Cottingham said, is that locating the library on the north site would take away land planned for two of four baseball fields the park board wants to build.

ìThe board is looking at it as if we can only build two fields ñ if we lose those other two fields ñ why should we bother (installing the fields),î Cottingham said.

City Engineer Julie Dresel told the council that the north site not only needs storm water systems installed, but grading is going to be quite a task because the land slopes to the west.

After consulting with a citizen review panel that voted for the north site and receiving confirmation from the countyís engineers, KKE, the city council had voted Dec. 8 to support the north site and do what it had to make it buildable.

Locating on the south site could save the city $60,000 in preparation costs like sewer and water construction.

However, library committee members argued in December that savings could easily be spent on the extensive landscaping needed on the south site.

Cottingham added that the parks commission wanted to consider the north side of the property for an indoor community center and hockey arena sometime in the future.

ìThe library people should know that those trees on that property may not always be there,î Cottingham said. ìIím concerned that if the city wants to build ice, the only feasible spot is on the north side. After getting into the library, do they want to look at a 20 to 24-foot high wall?î

A southerly site on the fire hall property also is about three acres, but its biggest drawback is that it is immediately adjacent to an unattractive regional storm pond.

Library committee members said they understood that outfitting the northerly site with storm sewer piping would cost about $60,000 more than the southerly site because of access to an existing pipe stub.

However, members said the projects may break-even when the cost for extensive landscaping on the southerly site was considered.
Library advisory committee member Verna Hoppe spoke during the council meeting, saying she was disappointed in the discussion about library location after the committee and the council had made their decisions.

ìWeíve worked on this for months and months,î Hoppe said. ìI cannot believe we could go this far along and suddenly talk like youíre going to move it.
ìThe commission should have looked at it sooner if they were concerned about it,î she said.

Council member Rod Lofquist, who acted as mayor for the meeting because Mayor Gloria Karsky was absent, said he saw the problem as the countyís timeline for the project.

ìWe have been asked to do something in a couple of months that we should have been given a year on. Thatís why all this is coming up.
ìThe simplest solution would be to tell the county to cut us a $2 million check and weíll do the library ourselves.î

After lengthy discussion, council members Rod Lofquist, John Pace Jr. and Kathy Blomquist voted to keep the library on the northern site in accordance with the library committeeís recommendation and the work that is underway by KKE.

Karsky and councilwoman Amy Oehlers did not vote because they were absent.

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