The Peachtree

City Library Commission met Wednesday night and had one of their larger

audiences, due largely in part to a presentation from the Leo Daly Company,

the firm tapped to design the possible library expansion. The public was

encouraged to come, look at the presentation and offer their opinions,

comments and critiques.

The Daly Company

visited the library May 20 and spoke with commission members and library

staff about their concerns and ideas. More ideas came from their engineers

who toured the facility and saw what would need to be done to the library

to plan for the next 20 years. Their thorough presentation was a culmination

of all of those thoughts and ideas.

Chief among

the functions the Daly Company thinks the library should have is an expanded

children's area. There are currently 1,060 children in the library's summer

reading program and most of the events this summer are full. There is

limited space as it is and the library's book collection is currently

growing at approximately two-and-a half percent a year, which means in

20 years, the library collection will have increased by 50 percent.

Tom Finley,

who gave the presentation for the Daly Company, also shared the idea of

providing a flexible storytime room that can house 120 children but can

also be subdivided. During the public comment portion, members of the

audience suggested a separate, small craft area, carpeting the children's

area and possibly having carpeted risers.

Finley also

spoke about enhancing sight lines in the library for staff, as a number

of areas in the library cannot currently be seen by staff from their stations.

Other ideas shared in the presentation included bringing in more natural

light, providing four to five small meeting rooms, more view of the beautiful

landscape outside, providing a courtyard reading plaza, a drive-up book

drop-off, a covered area near an entrance for disabled or elderly visitors

and possibly, smaller parking spaces for golf carts that would not take

up regular parking spaces.

The Daly Company

also saw a number of things that would need to be addressed, expansion

or not. First is that some of the aisles in the library are not currently

up to Americans with Disabilities Act standards. Though the library is

handicapped accessible, some of the aisles are to narrow to turn around

in a wheelchair. Another concern is the restroom located in the entrance

to the library and having the entrance to the bathroom not visible to

staff. Finley, who has worked on libraries of all sizes around the country,

told a few stories of some odd people in library restrooms and one story

of a man in the cieling of a restroom.

Other things

that would need to be done would be improving humidity control, upgrading

HVAC systems and fix a leak in the roof. To plan ahead, the library would

also want to meet state energy codes and provide a room with special thermal

conditions to care for tapes and historical documents and artifacts.

Currently,

the library occupies close to 20,000 square feet and the Daly Company

estimates that to expand properly and not have to expand again in the

next 20 years, they will need to add 10,000 square feet. The library can

expand close to 6,000 square feet behind the current children's area towards

Drake Field. To get the remaining 4,000 square feet, the Daly Company

is thinking of expanding by the current entrance, which would eliminate

the problem restroom area, enhance the library's visibility from Ga. Highway

54 and enhance the plaza as an area for special community events.

Close to 30

citizens attended the meeting and reacted positively to the presentation.

Commission Chairman Chris Clark then asked the audience if they thought

their friends and neighbors would react the same way and vote to pass

a bond referendum to pay for it. One woman spoke up immediately, stating,

"If we can build a dog park, we can build a library."

The next meeting

of the library commission is Wednesday, July 23 and Clark encouraged the

citizens in attendance to return to see what the Daly Company's plans

look like based on their input. He also encouraged them to bring their

friends and neighbors, as passing a bond referendum for expansion will

take a lot of support in the community.