FORKS — The Forks Library will be closed for three days later this month as staff members prepare to move to a temporary location before major renovations are begun later this year.
The library at 171 S. Forks Ave. will be closed March 19-21 while staff and volunteers weed out books and other items that are out of date, in poor condition or underused.
Such sifting typically is done throughout the course of a year, Forks Library Manager Theresa Tetreau said, but this year, it will be tackled in three days so the collection can be moved to a smaller, temporary location later, probably in May, before an estimated $835,000 renovation begins.
“We’re calling it a blitz weed,” Tetreau said with a chuckle.
Some items will be donated to the Friends of the Forks Library, she said, while others will be sent to other branches of the North Olympic Library System, which oversees public libraries in Clallam Bay, Port Angeles and Sequim as well as in Forks.
The collection will be moved to a “pocket library” in a city-owned complex at 71 N. Spartan Ave. — one block east and a couple blocks north of the library building — in May, if all goes according to plan.
North Olympic Library System Director Paula Barnes said she hopes major renovations to the Forks Library can begin as early as late summer this year.
The renovation will necessitate the complete closure of the library for six to 12 months and will include the replacement of the building’s roof, electrical system and ventilation system.
The library system’s five-member board of trustees voted unanimously last Thursday to approve the Forks Library closure, direct staff to sign a lease with the city for the temporary space and call for bids on the renovation once design plans and specifications are finished.
Plans by month’s end
The plans for the renovation should be done by the end of this month, Barnes said last week.
Bids from interested construction companies most likely will be due one month later.
The library system will pay $500 per month to the city for the temporary library space, a secure storage room for most of the collection and a small staff workspace, according to a library system staff report.
The pocket library will offer customer pickup for library materials placed on hold, a small collection consisting of new materials accumulated during the closure, a few public computers and potentially a Wi-Fi network, according to the staff report.
The library board also approved Thursday the use of $100,500 in 2012 library system timber revenue to bring the system’s total contribution to the renovation project to $660,000, or 79 percent of the estimated total cost.
The remaining $175,000 was raised through community donations organized by the Friends of Forks Library.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
