Date: Fri 29-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Booth-library-Stratford-Hall

Full Text:

Stratford Hall Will Operate As Town Library Until June

WITH CUTS

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

Asbestos abatement at the Cyrenius Booth Library will be completed this week,

as originally scheduled, but rather than move back into the building, the

Board of Trustees has chosen to set up shop for six months at Fairfield Hills

Campus until the entire expansion project is completed.

Materials will be moved to Stratford Hall as soon as possible, and limited

services will be offered to the public by the first of the year, according to

Gordon Williams, president of the Board of Trustees. The main section of the

building, last used as a medical library for Fairfield Hills Hospital, is

approximately 48 x 34 feet. Although the bookshelves have been removed, there

is still a book drop and bulletin board that can be used by the Booth Library

and its patrons.

"I went to the hospital yesterday, it just looks excellent," said President of

the Board Gordon Williams. "There is a leakage of steam, but it's on the way

to being fixed. The state will fix it; the cleaning of [the building] will be

our responsibility. It is a gracious, spacious building."

Although the library will not be able to operate as a full service library,

Director Janet Woycik said it will offer as many materials as possible to help

meet the needs of students and other patrons. Materials will include some

reference materials, some fiction, books-on-tape and videos for both adults

and children, current magazines and newspapers, children's fiction and

non-fiction. The staff hopes to have installed computers from the Reference

Department. Some of the bookshelves from the library will be moved to

Stratford Hall because there is nothing there now to accommodate the books.

The temporary library will not have adult non-fiction and genealogy because

those materials were boxed and stored earlier this spring.

At a meeting with OPM last Friday, First Selectman Bob Cascella received

formal approval for the library to use Stratford Hall until June 1, 1997. The

request for that specific building was made by Bill Lavery, head of the Long

Range Planning Building Committee, and expedited by Rep Julia Wasserman.

"The library will be responsible for [costs relating to] any alterations,

relocation, utilities, and insurance - which the town covers and anyway," said

Mr Cascella.

"I am grateful for the people at the state who have given us the opportunity

to open to the public again," said Mrs Woycik. "We are looking forward to

seeing all of our patrons again. We miss them."

Prior to securing a location at Fairfield Hills, Superintendent John Reed and

Middle School Principal Les Weintraub offered the use of two areas in Newtown

Middle School, said Mr Williams. Although staff was already in one area, the

superintendent would have asked them to move. "[He said] one part of the town

should help the other, and that they felt it was better to discombobulate the

school for a while and have somewhere for the library to go," said Mr

Williams. "It was a very nice offer and we considered it thoroughly. It was so

neat that one part of town would help the other that way."

Abatement Completion

The cost of abatement, related consulting, and the four tractor trailer boxes

needed to store books and materials that cannot be housed at Stratford Hall is

"less than $100,000," according to Director of Public Works Fred Hurley, who

is in charge of the clean-up project. The furniture and equipment that will

remain inside the existing library building will not pose a hindrance to

construction crews.

Although the Highway Department has offered to keep the materials in cold

storage for the library until next June, the library director is hoping

someone might offer an enclosed warehouse where they can put the palettes. "We

would love to have some place that's heated, because once the books get damp,

we're worried about mold," she said. "We want to put a plea out. Anyone who

can store 1,200 boxes of books for us through the middle of May can call me at

426-4533."

Mr Cascella commended the efforts of Mr Hurley and Frank Krasnickas of the

Public Building and Site Commission in expediting the clean-up. "[They] did a

great job of getting the testing done, and the abatement contractor on board.

They gave us a date, and are right on time with it."