Published: November 26, 2009 09:54 pm      

Library ready to renovate

Work should begin within one week.

Logansport Cass County Public Library director Dave Ivey says renovation work should begin within one week.

Ivey met with the project manager and construction supervisor from Commercial Contracting Inc. of Fort Wayne Monday to discuss details for the $800,000 project.

“We did not lay out and start working on a timetable,” Ivey said. “But I would predict work to begin next week. They are ready to go and their guys are ready to work.”

The library director said the first work library patrons would notice is the construction of dry-wall partitions on the first floor.

“They will be doing demolition in the back shelving initially,” he said. “So they will be putting up walls to try to block some of the noise.”

Even with the walls, Ivey predicts the library will be loud from construction workers completing demolition work such as cutting concrete and removing shelving.

After the shelving is cleared, contractors will install footing and steel in the first few weeks of work for new shelving downstairs. Four structural columns will be inserted from the ground up through the second floor to the roof.

Removal of the main staircase at the entrance of the library will occur near the end of the renovation work. Contractors will also wait to install a new front door and complete outdoor landscaping until weather permits in the spring.

Ivey said he is still hoping for a June 1 completion date.

• Jennifer Tangeman is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5148 or jennifer.tangeman@pharostribune.com.