After kicking off a planning and pledging stage in 2008, the board of the Dell Rapids Carnegie Library is anxious to start renovations and expansion on the existing building.

Members, as well as reps from Short Elliott Hendricksen (SEH) were on-hand at the Jan. 17 meeting of the Dell Rapids City Council to present a revised plan for the project.

Cost estimations for the project in 2008 were $1.24 million for site work, as well as an additional $289,000 for moving the belowground utilities. The 2011 estimates have shifted, with site work estimated at $1.399 million and a utility move at $300,000.

Board member Tom Earley stressed that the moving of utilities would move things along after a nearly four-year process. City utilities currently run beneath where the library expansion is planned. “It’s just an obstacle to us moving forward on construction and renovation,” he said. “We ask you to help make this plan a reality. We all need to say yes.”

The building will be 9,400 square feet in size with a fully sprinkled lawn.

The library board has also recommended alternate bids on the possibility of custom-building historic windows for an additional $20,000 or an option to leave the lower level of the building as a shell, which architect and project manager Gayle Mack estimated would decrease the site work cost by about $114,000.

“Because the windows are pretty simple, we’re pretty sure we can get some that match, but we have to get approval from the state,” Mack said.

Councilor Carrie Testerman said that once the construction starts, funds will start coming in more quickly as people respond better to visual progress.

“Look at the progress made in the last year,” she said. “The point is well-taken that when you see something in progress, donations do come.”

Grant proposals and fund drives are not over, according to library board member JoAnn Beck.

“This doesn’t stop our work on raising the funds,” she said. The board has some small grants pending, and members are looking into applying for a Deadwood grant again, particularly with the historic window building in the picture.

With the most up-to-date balance at Dec. 8, city finance officer LeAnn Kerzman estimated about $44,000 in additional pledges and donations have come in since, with end-of-the-year allocations.

According to Mack, SEH is approximately 65 percent finished with the design.

She said that the next phase of the project is to organize bidding documents, with the goals originally instated in 2008 in mind.

Those goals included making the building more accessible, offering an after-hours meeting room and increasing public computers.

“This work that they have done has a lot of detail and I feel is a truer representation of what this building will look like,” Earley said. “I think that construction and improvement is going to be one more thing to improve the image of our community.”

Items completed thus far in the design process include the selection of materials, the estimation of probable cost and the completion of historic preservation submittals to the South Dakota State Historical Society.

“We want to make sure to keep them in the loop,” Mack said, as the Dell Rapids Carnegie Library is one of less than 10 historic Carnegie libraries left in the state.

Earley said that the board’s goals in the near future include accelerating pledge payments form outstanding donors, bonding for any remaining amount not made through pledges and donations and a relocation of utilities.

Recent and upcoming switches in the library’s services include offering online access to library databases and wifi to visitors.

During the construction, the library board would like the services and materials to remain available. One option for equipment and book storage during renovation discussed at the Jan. 17 council meeting was using space in the old elementary building.

“The library is an essential resource to our community,” Earley said. SEH estimates the total construction would take about 10-11 months, start to finish.