Cary Library’s lower-level renovation has been in the works since July 2024.
When the project was presented at Town Meeting that year, it was predicted that construction would be finished in June 2025. But clearly, that date has come and gone.
At the end of last month, the library put out a statement sharing an updated timeline for the project.
“There’s good news, the end is in sight!,” Koren Stembridge, the library’s director, wrote in the statement. “If all goes as planned, we hope to reopen the Lower Level in mid-February.”
The walls have been painted and new ceilings, lighting, and flooring have all been installed. Furniture and shelving are expected to arrive in early January, Stembridge wrote. Then, it just comes down to moving back in.
So what caused the delay?
The renovation team had to do some extra work on the sprinkler and HVAC systems, which caused the timeline to be pushed back, Mike Cronin, Lexington’s director of Public Facilities, told the Observer.
“We thought the sprinkler line was going to be a four-inch pipe, and it was only a two-inch, so we had to rerun a new line so we could supply the right volume of water to the sprinkler system,” Cronin explained. “Another thing was the pathways for the [HVAC] duct — when we got up in the ceiling and started pulling all the old stuff down, we found that the new stuff didn’t quite fit exactly, so we had to do some rerouting and resizing, and it took a little bit of time to have that redesigned and reinstalled.”
Unplanned hiccups almost always arise when working on renovations, Cronin said. New-construction projects, like the plan for the new Lexington High School, are much more predictable, he noted.
“If we were doing a renovation in the existing [LHS] building, we would walk into a whole mountain worth of unexpected conditions, which would then play into the end-date of the completion for sure,” said Cronin.
He and his team will spend the next three weeks wrapping up the final details of the library project, such as installing glass panels and bathroom finishes.
“It’s been a great project, we’re really excited about it and looking forward to it being done,” Cronin said.
The new space will boast a “teaching kitchen” that will be used for cooking and science-related programming, a makerspace for STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) events, and all new audio-visual equipment so meetings and talks can be offered in a hybrid format.
The layout of the basement is more open, allowing staff and parents to better keep track of young children. Increased safety and accessibility in the new space are some of the features Stembridge is most excited about.
“One of our new restrooms in the children’s room includes a universal changing table, which will allow for individuals who need a larger changing table to be able to use the restroom with dignity,” she told the Observer. “And we’ve had a cochlear hearing loop in our large meeting room for a long time, but we’ve added one to the children’s programming room, so we’ll have two spaces that have assisted listening capability.”
Stembridge also looks forward to bringing Cary’s events and programs back to the library. Since the lower level closed for renovation, the library has had to host events out in the community. Programming has taken place at Cary Hall, the Community Center, Lex Farm, the Monroe Center for the Arts, Omar Comics, and Galaray House, among other locations.
“People have invited us and managed to allow us to do our thing out at these various locations,” Stembridge said. “It’s been a really wonderful experience being so warmly welcomed by our community partners.”
Stembridge is grateful for how accommodating local businesses and other town buildings and teams have been with hosting library events.
“It’s hard when people are disappointed we don’t have all the services that they want. In this climate, people are often taking things out on one another, but we haven’t experienced that here — we’ve really felt the support from the community over the last 18 months,” she said.
My kids have really enjoyed the Bedford Library these last 18 months, but I don’t enjoy the drive down Great Rd. We’re excited to return to Cary! Will there be a turtle? Asking for my kids, of course.
I am very excited to hear that our library will be finally returned to us soon – my grandkids cannot wait!
I have some questions to ask about who is responsible for the oversight of any library expansion and renovation projects? I am baffled that the problems described by Mike Cronin have only been discovered during construction. Why were they not anticipated prior to the start of the project.
The library was expanded, at a substantial cost, about 20 years ago. The Town’s building department has all architectural and construction drawings on file. The plans which include the fire protection design (including the pipe diameters) should be in these drawings. Why were they not checked prior to the start of this HVAC upgrade project? Same goes for being surprised by the new ducts not fitting in the place of the old ones.
There are only two reasons why this unnecessary delay happened. First, the “as built” plans from the past project were not obtained or are inaccurate. If this is the case, then whoever was in charge of that project should be held accountable for this serious failure – incompletion of the project. If these plans exist, then this delay was caused because no one pulled up the old drawings and used them to make sure that the new design would fit the existing space. Again, this person needs to be held accountable. Why? Because Lexington is about to undertake its largest ever construction project, and if we cannot even get a relatively simple project without these kinds of fundamental errors, then the construction of Bloom could be far more costly that expected.
I hope that the Lexington Observer will follow up its story about the Library renovation and find out and share the reasons why the Library project is so far behind schedule, and who should be held accountable for these delays.
Agree with Olga. The facilities director essentially acknowledged blunders in planning. I look forward to reading a follow-up piece in a future issue of the Observer.
So sad to see DPF thrown under the bus when they are really extremely bright and experienced folks, despite not having x-ray vision 😏
Disappointed that Lexington Town Meeting voted overwhelmingly for this $4,000,000 library renovation without considering and questioning the details or following up on the progress or lack there of. Much appreciation for Lexington Observer for their oversight of our tax payer $$$!