Yachats library commission debates what to do with 50-year-old building — raze and rebuild, remodel or just move

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews

YACHATS – A proposal to update the 50-year-old Yachats library is facing a decision shared by many homeowners — is it better to move to a new site and start over or just stay put and expand or remodel?

Those were the two main options on the table Thursday as the Library Commission voted 4-0 to gather more information before coming up with a recommendation to the city council. A third option — staying put and making upgrades to the library’s interior — had little support.

As a result, commission chair David Rivinus will look deeper into possible grants and new sources of money for the project, and also confer with the city’s Finance Committee and others.

“Do we build on the same spot, or move? That’s the issue,” summed up vice chairwoman Naomi Steenson.

“Costs are not going to go down — ever,” said commissioner Marion Godfrey.

“We should move forward with a new building” said commissioner Street Schellhase.

Rivinus had planned Thursday to have the commission ask the city council for its view of their quandry, but sentiments among those at the meeting — including city manager Bobbi Price — ran toward first coming up with a recommendation first.

Until last fall, the project had seemed straightforward — renovate and expand the library building on West Seventh Street at a cost of $1.09 million. This would have enlarged the 2,400-square-foot building by 1,200 square feet.

But direction shifted in November. Soil tests found the site ground too unstable to support the expansion without major, expensive foundation work. The project’s design/build company said it would be cheaper to tear down the building and build a new, bigger one on the same site – and estimated that cost at $1.46 million. That’s $500,000 more than the city and the Friends of Yachats Library financial support group has on hand.

When the Library Commission announced plans to raze the building, the city’s Public Works department inquired if they could move there instead because of cramped space in their location next to the library. Then, the rationale went, the library could move elsewhere in town on existing city land, or on property the city would buy.

Move this here, that there

That shift in direction launched a chain of suggestions and speculation, some involving a possible game of “musical buildings” among city departments. The scenarios include:

• Leave the library where (and mostly how) it is, with interior improvements that wouldn’t require a building permit. Any expansion of the 50-year-old structure would require extensive work to bring it up to current building codes;
• Don’t raze the building, but let Public Works Department staff move in;
• Have the city buy a piece of land for a new library — land that might have otherwise been used for Public Works.
• Build a new library on land the city already owns like the greenspace in back of the Commons. But pushback on this idea has been substantial.
• Move City Hall staff back to the Commons, and let the library move into City Hall along with Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program, now housed in the Commons.
• Raze the Little Log Church & Museum and build a combination library/museum on the site.

On Thursday, Steenson argued against staying put and making only interior upgrades to the library.

“In our coastal region, it’s not necessarily more cost-effective to stick with an old building; it’s not what you know, it’s what you don’t know,” she observed, adding that “Every little repair leads to more.”

“A library is far more than just taking out books,” said Godfrey. Libraries today serve more social functions, she said, offering things like community rooms, children’s programs, and “safe spaces” for those “at the lower end of society.”

The cadre of unpaid volunteers who regularly work in the library had their monthly meeting Monday. At that session, 20 of the 22 staffers voted to move forward with a new building.

Soil work too late?

In hindsight, some community members have wondered why the soil tests on the current site wasn’t conducted earlier in the process. The discovery of the soil instability — not made until 18 months of planning had elapsed — sent construction estimates soaring. The depth of sand, clay and water on the site meant that the foundation under both the new and old sections would have had to be stabilized, Rivinus said.

“That was an error” on the part of the contractor, MD Architect + Design of Coburg, according to Rivinus. “But really, it would have made very little difference” if the discovery had been made earlier in the process – only occurred earlier.

The commission chair noted that the soil tests alone weren’t responsible for an engineering recommendation to tear down the library. Floor fragility, inadequate insulation and other factors also contributed, he said.

The commission – led by Rivinus — has been working on the project since before 2020, when a consultant recommended that the city “Renovate or rebuild the library facility to increase seating, computers and meeting room capacity,” among other improvements.

While the time investment has been significant for the commission, Rivinus says, “There is enthusiasm for this project; it has not waned.”

The newest addition to the library commission is Schellhase, an engineer who joined “precisely because we’re working on this project,” Rivinus said. Schellhase worked for years with the Denver Building Department.

• Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com