Carrboro, Orange County Get Closer To New Library

Carrboro is one step closer to partnering with Orange County to build a brand new library on N. Greensboro St.

The commissioners received an update from Carrboro Tuesday, stating that the town is currently doing studies on the property and expect to be ready to begin construction in September 2017.

“Since I have been on the board I have actually heard quite a bit about the need for this new library,” said commissioner Renee Price. “To some people it has been a priority.”

Because of the extended timeline, the commissioners have the option of including the $6.38 million the library is expected to cost into the 2016-17 fiscal budget or put it off until the next year.

Orange County director of asset management Jeff Thompson spoke about what the county anticipates spending this year.

“If we assume the conservative schedule presented by Carrboro is just that, we would probably have less than $50,000 that we would need to spend,” he said.

County manager Bonnie Hammersly said the fiscal year the money is in has no effect on the timeline for the project.

“All it really does, and this happens a lot in capital investment plans, is we move things,” she said. “We think ‘okay we’re going to do it in 2017-18’ but when we get to it doesn’t happen so we move it out.”

The new library will replace the Carrboro Branch Library in McDougle Middle School and the Cybrary in the Carrboro Century Center.

The two have a combined annual operating cost of $216,000. Hammersly said the county expects the Southern Branch Library to have an annual operating cost of $1.2 million, but that number is slightly skewed.

“The $1.2 million does include $700,000 in debt on an annual basis for 20 years,” she said.

At the moment the county is waiting for Carrboro to conclude its studies before beginning studies of its own.

Carrboro’s studies are expected to conclude sometime in the spring.

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