When two group programs were scheduled at the Maumelle Public Library at the same time recently, library director Pam Rudkin immediately tried to solve an expected problem.
With only 29 parking spaces at the branch of the Central Arkansas Library System and nearby construction having taken away what used to be the library's overflow lot, Rudkin offered a needed, but unpopular, solution.
"You cannot find a place to park," Rudkin said of the library's ongoing space problem. "We have a lot of fender-benders in our parking lot. Having two programs at the same time, I told them we had to limit the number of people who could come. That didn't go over too well."
Nate Coulter, the library system's director since December, offered the system's board of trustees a remedy for that and other pressing issues at the 20-year-old Maumelle library Thursday. The board's finance committee, and then the full board, approved Coulter's recommendation to go forward with an estimated $1.8 million revenue bond issue for improvements to the library.
The Maumelle library, at 10 Lake Pointe Drive, is in a picturesque setting against Lake Valencia, but it now has the Maumelle Charter High School and gymnasium being built across the street from it.
The former vacant lot where library patrons could park when the library's undersized parking lot was full was fenced off this summer for the construction of the school, Rudkin said. The library's staff of six also has to park in the existing lot, reducing spaces for patrons.
"We have increased our attendance by about 15 percent, but now we've lost about 15 parking spaces," said Rudkin, who has been the Maumelle library's director for eight years. "We're busy."
The city's charter middle and elementary schools also use the Maumelle public library as a school library, Rudkin said. The library is host to 11 charter school classes a week, lasting about 20 minutes each, she said.
The bond issue, backed by revenue from library fines and fees, including parking deck fees, would allow the addition of 39 parking spaces, a new and relocated geothermal heating and cooling system, an additional building to expand meeting and office space and the installation of more energy-efficient lighting.
Because the financing will use revenue bonds instead of general obligation bonds, the issue doesn't require voter approval.
The debt service for the new bond issue will add $60,000-$80,000 to an existing annual bond debt on the Maumelle branch, Coulter said. But the $124,000 annual debt service on those existing bonds will end in five years, he said.
The library recently paid off bonds on its downtown campus, eliminating another annual $220,000 debt service payment, Coulter said.
"We can afford it, and we owe it to Maumelle and to the community out there that is so supportive of the library," Coulter said, adding that the heating and cooling system is another "pressing need" for the library. "I think this is a priority for us right now."
Waiting another six months or a year to make the Maumelle improvements, Coulter said, would increase the library system's costs because of an expectation that interest rates will be higher than they are now.
The library has between 11,000 and 12,000 square feet. The addition would expand the library space to about 13,000 square feet, plus the additional parking. The parking lot and the construction will occur on the library's east side.
Metro on 10/28/2016