Despite initial concerns following Mayor Paul Soglin’s first few weeks in office, construction on the renovated Central Library is scheduled to begin on time following several days of discussions between city and library officials.
Following an initial meeting between Soglin and representatives from the library staff Tuesday, a timeline featuring a number of fundraising benchmarks for the renovation was created in order to maintain the original completion date for construction, Library Board President Tripp Widder said.
“We had a meeting with Mayor Soglin on Tuesday to talk about how we could deal with his concerns about not having the city pay more than it has already committed to pay while still keeping the project on track,” Widder said. “It was a good meeting in the sense that both the mayor and his staff and the library folks were looking for a way to figure out how to do this.”
Under the provisions agreed upon by both parties, the library will be responsible for raising certain amounts of private dollars for the renovations as measured by a number of different “mile posts,” Widder said. The amount of money required for each benchmark correlates with a different spending necessity, such as signing construction contracts or purchasing furniture and equipment for the renovation.
According to a statement from the city, the Madison Public Library Foundation will accelerate its fundraising efforts in order to raise $8 million in cash and pledges from private donations, of which $1.5 million has already been collected. The city will contribute $17 million to the project through bonds and $4.5 million will come from pending new market tax credits.
Widder said the accelerated pace of fundraising would be difficult but not impossible, and said it would require community participation.
“The community is going to have to help out here, but we have a very good plan in place,” he said. “We’re just going to have to roll up our sleeves and go to work, but I think we will be able to do it.”
The foundation’s Executive Director Jenni Collins said she is happy with the outcome of the agreement because it represents a solution that allows the city to maintain its fiscal responsibility while keeping the project on track.
She said the Library Foundation worked closely with the city to create a timeline that the city was comfortable with, but that was also feasible from a fundraising perspective.
Because of the accelerated speed, she said the fundraising efforts would jump straight to the public phase rather than allowing for a “quiet” private period that she said was typical for this type of project.
“We really just have a lot of work ahead of us to raise the money – these are some very aggressive goals in a very short amount of time and I don’t discount how hard it will be to raise that kind of money,” Collins said. “But Madison loves its libraries and we are counting on our supporters.”
Collins said the foundation is looking to reach 70 percent of its total fundraising goal by next summer. The construction contracts would also ideally be signed by November or December of this year with the project slated for completion by July 1, 2013.
