New Excelsior library hinges on council's decision on City Hall

In Excelsior, where a new community library is a top priority, selecting a site now depends on whether the city also wants a new City Hall.

Hennepin County has identified 11 possible locations for a new county library in Excelsior, including at least two for a joint library-City Hall building.

The choices cannot be narrowed to one for action by the county commissioners until the city says yes or no to a joint building, county officials said Monday in a presentation to the Excelsior City Council.

Rough estimates put the construction cost of a 7,200-square-foot library at about $2.5 million and a 7,500-square-foot City Hall at roughly $2 million. There are no estimates yet on the cost of the land needed. The county would pay for only the library share of the building.

The question is how Excelsior, a city of 2,300, can pay for a new City Hall when it is also facing millions of dollars in street improvements, City Manager Kristi Luger said Tuesday.

Some residents who listened to the presentation Monday said they would not want deliberations over a new City Hall to halt momentum on the library. "I don't feel a new City Hall is an immediate need," said Petra Cripe of Excelsior. "The library should come first.'

Rick Johnson, the county's Excelsior project coordinator, said: "It's important that we continue to show progress. If an agreement could be put together quickly, that would be great."

Hennepin County approved $1.1 million for a feasibility study and design of an Excelsior library. If the board approves a project in time, a new library could be designed in 2009 and built in 2010, Johnson said.

City Hall and the Excelsior branch of the county library now share a cramped building on Third Street. The shell of the existing structure is all that is salvageable, said Architect Mark Wentzell of Ankeny Kell Architects, the St. Paul firm hired to design the library.

Because bringing the library work space up to code would cut the public space by half, Wentzell said, "Remodeling proved not to make a lot of sense." If the library portion of the building were to be razed and rebuilt on the same site, it's likely City Hall would be torn down, too, he said.

The current library is 3,600 square feet. Community needs justify a library about twice that size with 24 parking spaces, Wentzell said.

Options include building a new library and new City Hall side by side in a single story at the existing site or a City Hall on top of the library in a two-story building at the current site, he said. A third option would be to build a new library or a joint library and municipal building in the city-owned east parking lot across Water Street from the current site.

The city began considering a new City Hall in 2004, when a study commission found the current building lacks storage and work space and has antiquated council chambers, said Mayor Nick Ruehl. Now that the county has indicated a willingness to share a building, the council can discuss that option in the next few months, he said.

Wentzell said building one building for two uses probably would cost less than building a separate library and City Hall. Significant savings from a joint building would be a key reason to consider building a new City Hall now, Luger said. "If there are not significant savings, we might have to pass it up."

In an interview Tuesday, Council Member Greg Miller said a new City Hall would boost community pride and give city employees a better place to work. But, "given the economy and the state of everything, nobody really wants to spend money on City Hall."

The city wanted to wait until the county presented options, and now "we have to come to grips with the City Hall portion of it or completely divorce the projects," he said.

"If Hennepin County is ready to build the library, we don't want to get it the way of that momentum at all."