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Library board urges town help as Lake Hiawatha branch deteriorates; three options outlined
Summary
At the Feb. 18 Parsippany-Troy Hills council meeting, a library representative said the 60-year-old Lake Hiawatha branch is deteriorating and outlined three options — replace, lease, or rehab — noting past grant and local match amounts and constraints from Green Acres rules.
Chris Preston, speaking during public comment at the Parsippany (Troy Hills) Township Council meeting on Feb. 18, urged township help to address the deteriorating Lake Hiawatha library facility and outlined three possible responses.
Preston said the branch, built about 60 years ago, is “deteriorating” and described recent repairs that have not solved long-term problems. “We just finished doing a strategic plan outlining what we'd like to do in the next few years,” Preston said. He said the township paid about $50,000 last year for a new roof but that the air-conditioning system “is shot” and the building may be unusable in summer without further work.
Why it matters: the library board previously accepted a state grant the speaker described as $3,000,000 and told council the town matched that amount with $6,000,000; Preston said those sums still would not fully replace the building and that the grant required replacement rather than rehabilitation. He said at least $1,000,000 allocated in 2015 for systemwide rehab remains available and that combining that amount with $3,000,000 would create a funding pool to rehabilitate the branch if replacement is not feasible.
Preston outlined three options he said the board is considering: build a new library (he said proposed Knoll Road sites are on Green Acres-protected land and thus ineligible for a new building), lease and retrofit a vacant neighborhood property, or fully rehabilitate the existing structure using available funds. He emphasized the library board cannot implement any of these on its own and asked the council for assistance.
No formal action was taken at the meeting. Council members did not vote on any library-specific funding or a staff assignment during the public session.
Ending: Preston asked the council for help identifying a path forward; the council did not set a timetable or next steps during the meeting.
