The Kanawha County Public Library system's board approved Monday paying up to $370,000 for what one board member says will be a closer look at the unnamed site she expects will be recommended as the system's new main branch site.
Cheryl Crigger Morgan, the current chairwoman of the committee that's been working on picking a site to recommend to the full board for final approval, said the committee still is "circling two sites," both in Charleston city limits.
She declined to say whether the current main branch site, in downtown Charleston at the corner of Capitol and Quarrier streets, is one the two finalists, and said she only plans to publicly reveal the final recommended site.
She said the current plan for each site would involve renovating buildings already on the sites.
"That gets a little sticky because you can run into issues and essentially what this contract [amendment] does is it allows us to go a step further with the conceptual design," Morgan said, "and making sure there's not any hidden, or to the extent that we can, try to ensure that there are no hidden issues that are going to cost us later."
In February of last year, the board approved paying Charleston-based Silling Associates and Cleveland-based HBM Architects and those companies' subcontractors no more than $110,000 in total hourly fees for their work on Phase One, which was to involve gathering community input, helping the board envision what exactly it wants in a main branch and helping it choose a location.
The firms also were eligible for reimbursement for certain additional expenses. Silling's Jody Driggs said at the time that the cost and time frame for Phase Two, which will deal with the detailed design of the site that's ultimately selected, was yet to be determined.
The contract amendment document approved by the board in a voice vote Monday says the additional services will be provided at the hourly rates set in the February 2016 contract, but the total amount can't exceed $370,000.
Monday's document states that "If the professional services move through to full design and construction administration for the Project, fees collected for Additional Services for this Amendment will be reconciled with the Basic Services of Phase Two, provided the information developed remains applicable to the final direction of the Library development in Phase Two."
The February 2016 contract laid out a 4- to 6-month process to prepare the board to ultimately choose either to overhaul its existing main branch location or pick a specific new site. It's now been more than a year since that contract was approved.
Listed among the additional services that Monday's document says Silling and HBM now have to provide are "Architectural building plans, sections, elevations, and preliminary renderings of major interior and exterior spaces. Library FF&E [Furniture, Fixture, and Equipment] quantitative information will be illustrated on building plans."
The companies will also have to provide estimates for construction and total project costs.
The document says the firms have 16 weeks to provide the design phase services mentioned.
"Our services to date have been to see if the programs can fit inside on the sites that we are proposing," Morgan said. "This goes a step further ... to make sure that not only everything will fit but it's suitable."
Also Monday, the board, in another voice vote, passed a $9.2 million budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The board also accepted Virginia Rugeley's resignation from the board after 37 consecutive years of service on it. When asked why she's resigning now, Rugeley said she turned 80, her and her husband's health isn't what it used to be and "our brains aren't working as well as they should," she said with a laugh.
"I just think the library board needs young members with fresh ideas," she said.
She said her father was an English teacher and on the library board in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where she grew up.
"To me libraries are one of the most important institutions we have in a democratic society," Rugeley said. "And I've loved being on the library board, and the people who work at libraries, I'm serious, they are the best people in the world. It's a calling for them, it's not just a job."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.