Ramsey County to spend $1.5M for library space

Ramsey County will remodel part of the New Brighton Family Service Center as a branch to replace Arden Hills site.

By CHRIS HAVENS, Star Tribune

Last update: February 1, 2011 - 9:34 PM

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The Ramsey County Board on Tuesday approved spending about $1.5 million to remodel a portion of the New Brighton Family Service Center for use as a library branch.

Commissioners also signed off on a 20-year lease with the city of New Brighton for the space. The county will pay $1 per year over the term for 4,750 square feet in the center, located at 400 10th St. NW. The county may build an additional 1,500 square feet if desired and will set aside $160,000 if an expansion of the parking lot is needed.

Adolfson & Peterson will do construction, while HGA Architects will do design. The firms were chosen from a bid pool of 11 builder-architect teams. 

The County Board voted in October to close the aging Arden Hills library location and move the 50,000-item collection to New Brighton. The move is expected to save $150,000 per year in operating costs.

Last month, the county put the vacant Arden Hills library building up for sale. Bids will be accepted through the end of this month. No asking price was set. The property's value is set at $1.8 million, according to county records, but it's unlikely it will sell for that much.

Proceeds from that sale, as well as from the sale of the old North St. Paul library, will go toward repaying a temporary $677,000 cash loan from the county's library operating budget being used to fund the new project.

Construction on the New Brighton branch is expected to begin in April and end in November.

Also Tuesday, commissioners voted 6-1 to contribute $425,000 toward the purchase of 70 acres in the Fish Creek Corridor in the southern area of Maplewood. The land is south of Carver Avenue, between Hwy. 61 and Interstate 494. The county owns about 130 acres adjacent to the land.

The county will work with the city of Maplewood and the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District on preserving 50 acres of the land.

Chris Havens • 651-298-1552