By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Cranbury Library Board of Trustees is expected to vote Thursday to reject all 17 bids for constructing the new library building, as officials look to a statewide ballot question passing this fall to obtain additional money for the project.
The deadline for the board to act on the bids is Sept.27, with the lowest bid at a little less than $3.1 million. The township has said the library is short $387,000, although library officials say the shortfall is around $322,000 when pledged donations are all included.
But without all the money in hand to go forward, the construction of the building is on hold, with all eyes on the outcome of the November ballot question.
The state intends to make $125 million, through a bond sale, available for library projects, should voters approve at the polls.
Mayor David Cook, at Monday’s Township Committee meeting, said that in two months, “we’ll find out, exactly, where the state is with funding.”
“And then all this goes away, I think on some level,” he said.
The township could not close the shortfall, even if it wanted to, in time for the library board to hire a construction firm this month.
While some want to see the town contribute more money, Mayor Cook, earlier in the meeting, said officials face pressures from what he called “entities that aren’t as supportive in some ways.” The township has agreed to provide $475,000 toward the project, for the parking lot and site development.
Deputy Mayor Susan Goetz said officials have felt, in recent months a “push to put more into the library.”
“And, again, we struggle with the balance there, with the balance of raising taxes,” she said.
Elsewhere during the meeting, both township and library officials sought to show a unified front.
“I think, perhaps, you have sensed that there are some people who are getting impatient, because this project has been going on for quite a while,” said Kirstie Venanzi, president of the Library Board. “We’re really on the same team.”
Goetz sought to dispel any notion of township officials opposing the library, something she said was “not the case.”
Yet Venanzi said that any pressure the Township Committee is getting is coming from the public, not the library board.
“We’re working with you,” she said in expressing frustration how other projects leapfrog the library.
Township Committeeman Daniel P. Mulligan III, the mayor’s representative on the library board, issued a call for unity, and said he intended to vote for the referendum.
“Let’s work together to get the funding passed in November,” he said. “So if we can get that money from the state and to help fund the library project, it’s a home run for us all.”
Library director Marilynn G. Mullen has said that, if the bond referendum passes, the library would seek at least $500,000 and potentially more. But if the ballot question fails, that would mean library officials and the township would need to figure out how to proceed.
