Cedar Rapids Weather
Future Of C.R. City Hall And Library On DisplayBy Justin Foss, Reporter
CEDAR RAPIDS - If you live in Cedar Rapids, the city wants your ideas on what to do with five buildings, including the Central Fire Station, The Public Works Building, and the city's fleet maintenance building.
But two buildings are getting the most attention - the Veterans Memorial building that holds City Hall and the Public Library. There is still the option to rebuild the library where it sits. The board of trustees says it would raise the building one floor to prevent future flood damage. Although, that's an idea the board doesn't like. "The board feels strongly that it should be a store front service. You should be able to drop your kids off and watch them walk into the library, and not have to walk that far to experience the library," said Doug Elliott, Vice President of the Cedar Rapids Public Library Board of Trustees. Elliot said the best idea is a new location. The total bill for a new facility is $45 million. That bill includes everything from getting the land to getting the books to fill the building. As it stands currently, FEMA will pay at least half. But that could change if FEMA declares the public library a critical facility. That means FEMA will pay to move the facility and would again pay a 90 / 10 split of the total costs of rebuilding. For context, Central Fire is considered a Critical Facility. "And it seems that's the way the community is interested in doing too," said Elliot. The next question is where. One location is between 1st and 2nd Ave SE, and 4th and 5th Street SE. Another location is between 7th and 8th Street SE and 1st and 2nd Ave SE. City Hall could cost tax payers from $1.74 million to as much as $138 million. A big difference in cost, and location. Although, the highest cost could lose more than $20 million if the expected co-location savings actually happen. At the cheapest price, we get old city hall repaired, but not upgraded. At the high end, we get a new building at a new location. "If you think about Vets Memorial, there's a lot of space there that's not usable as a city hall, and if you build a new city hall specific for a city hall, it would be a much more efficient use of space, more efficient use of staff," said Greg Eyerly, City of Cedar Rapids Flood Recovery Director. The question to the public is how much is efficiency worth? "If you're watching this, and you think, 'I don't want to build a brand new city hall, or spend 60 million dollars to build a new city hall,' then you need to come down down, fill out a card and say that," said Eyerly. Another idea for the library is to just move into an empty building. But, Elliott said that's not so easy, because the library is a special building. He said just like filling moving boxes with books, they get very heavy. Elliott said any current building a library would go in would need to be one floor, or have better than average floors.  Email Justin  Read Justin's blog This JustIN  Follow Justin on Twitter
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