After years of community effort, 51-year-old Yachats library demolished to make way for 3,600 square foot structure

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews

YACHATS — The walls came tumbling down — and so did the doors, the windows and roof of the old Yachats library on Monday and Tuesday as demolition made way for a new, bigger building.

By Wednesday, all that will remain of the 51-year-old structure will be memories and mud.

Starting Monday, workers from 3 Kings Environmental of Battle Ground, Wash. clawed into the West Seventh Street building with a giant excavator, dumping the debris into equally giant containers.

Work on the new structure is expected to begin soon as Unitus Services of Vancouver, Wash. constructs a new, expanded library on the site. It has 270 days to finish the work.

Unitus was the low bidder on the project, which is budgeted at $1.5 million. The city modified some of the original contract specifications to arrive at a final contract amount of $1.36 million. Much of the money was raised from two large bequests, grants and other fundraising.

The new facility will offer some 3,600 square feet of books, magazines and DVDs,  a community meeting room and an area for teenagers and children. The old structure measured 2,400 square feet.

“Seeing the building come down is step one in what will be a great asset to our city,” Mayor Craig Berdie said in an email. He also thanked Library Commission chair David Rivinus and the many volunteers who have worked on the project “for all your hard work and dedication.”

The original structure had been targeted for expansion for about 20 years.

The library continues to operate in temporary quarters in Room 8 of the Commons. Entry is on the north side of the building next to the large blue book return box. Hours are noon to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday.