Excelsior still hoping for new library

Parking is precious in downtown Excelsior, but if the east municipal parking lot is where Hennepin County prefers to build a new library, the city would make it available.

City Council members have sent the county a resolution to that effect.

Making the east parking lot the site of the library would not necessarily cost the city parking spaces, said Mayor Nick Ruehl. Some library designs include an attached parking ramp that would add spaces, he said. The design is still under discussion.

More important to the city than where the library is built is that it is built, said City Manager Kristi Luger.

"We just want a new library."

The County Board is expected to decide whether to proceed in the next several months. County Board Chairman Mike Opat said commissioners will re-examine the county budget in light of cuts proposed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

"We have quite a distance to go with that project," Opat said of the proposed Excelsior library.

The current capital budget includes $3.1 million for the Excelsior library, and so far $1.1 million has been spent, Weiszhaar said. Commissioners would have to appropriate the next $2 million in order for the project to have a green light, he said.

It would be financed with library bonds, Weiszhaar said.

If the feasibility study recommends going ahead and commissioners agree, it's likely that a final design would be completed this year with construction to start in 2010, he said.