Library interior design underway

While waiting to hear whether the South Regional Library project has been awarded a $500,000 construction grant, library officials are moving forward with interior design and the technical aspects of the planned 30,000 square foot facility.

According to Collier library director Marilyn Matthes, the county should receive word about the state grant award sometime around the first of July.

A date for groundbreaking will be determined sometime in the fall.

While the original cost estimate was $9.5 million, there are no cost breakdowns or estimates of impact fees the county will pay for construction yet, and no confirmed construction time frame, but Mathis said the building continues to take shape.

The library, which will be located adjacent to Edison College and a planned emergency management services operations center off Collier Blvd., will feature a multi-purpose room with seating 250 people that can be divided into two smaller rooms; a catering kitchen adjacent to multi-purpose room; and an informal courtyard outside multi-purpose room that can be used as a pre-function meeting area and extension of the multi-purpose room.

It will also have a conference room for 10-12 people; a children's department, with story-telling and craft rooms; a teen area, with booths, tackable wall surface for artwork, paperback racks, and comfortable seating; and an audio visual area for DVDs, audio books, compact discs and whatever other type of AV becomes viable for a public library.

In addition there will be several small group study rooms; a periodical reading area; fiction and non-fiction shelving, with tables and comfortable seating; a reference assistance area; circulation stations and possible self-check outs; and plenty of staff work space.

A computer room will sport the latest in technology but the number of computer workstations has yet to be determined.

The number of parking spaces will minimally conform to code, even though more parking than code requires have been requested.