OREGON, Wis. — The Oregon Village Board voted on Monday to locate the community’s new library at Keller Alpine Meadows Park rather than downtown at the site of the current library.
Plans call for building the 33,000 square-foot library along North Alpine Parkway. It would be a maximum of two stories tall and designed to take advantage of surrounding wetlands and parklands.
The vote comes after years of discussions about the library’s future. Village Administrator Martin Shanks and the library board recently voiced support of the North Alpine Parkway location.
Despite supporting keeping the library downtown next to the senior center, Village President Randy Glysch said it became clear that wouldn’t be feasible. The small footprint limited what could be done on the current site and would have impacted any future expansion of the senior center.
The village needed to build the library on land it already owned to make the project happen due to cost, Glysch said, adding the village will already borrow $10 million of the more than $12 million cost of the project. A capital campaign brought in around $2 million.
“We looked everywhere downtown to see if there was something that could work,” he said, calling the decision “the less disruptive in terms of what’s right for the village, what’s right for going forward for other projects.”
It was time for the village to make that tough decision, he added, to minimize the impact of rising construction costs and to avoid holding up future projects.
The proposal had split community members, Glysch said, adding the vote was the toughest he’s had to cast while on the board.
Now, architects will review the site and work on the new building’s design. The village hopes to begin construction by the end of 2022.
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