Library to seek 25 or more new parking spaces

By NEAL RENTZ

The Pound Ridge Library board of trustees is considering asking the planning board to approve additional parking spaces.

At the Jan. 21 library board meeting, board president Valerie Nelson, chair of the board’s parking improvement committee, told her colleagues the library’s traffic study is ready to be shared with the town’s planning board. 

“I reviewed it, and I think it covers what the town engineer was concerned about,” Nelson said of Jason Pitingaro.

Nelson suggested that the library could seek to get on a planning board agenda for an informal conversation about the revised traffic study. An informal meeting would not include the requirement to have paid consultants to accompany representatives from the library, she noted.

If the library decided to go forward following an informal planning board meeting the trustees could come up with a formal parking expansion plan, Nelson said. 

Nelson proposed a new plan for additional parking. She advocated the construction of a new driveway for neighboring residents, which was part of the original parking plan, rather than adding new parking spaces at the back of the library. Additional spaces could be created by widening the road and clearing out trees along the easement, she said. The plan would include a turnaround at the end of the road and the library would need to address neighboring residents’ concerns about headlights and extra safety lighting, she said.

The board will need to decide how many additional parking spaces they want and what the cost of the new spaces would be, Nelson said. If the board did not seek at least 25 additional spaces, the project would not be worth pursuing, she said.

Audio-visual system

Also at last week’s meeting, the board discussed how to proceed with potentially upgrading the audio-visual system in the library’s Schaffner Room, the venue for various programs and board of trustees meetings.

The current AV system is “a little outdated,” library director Jennifer Coulter said.

The library received two bids for the project — from DNR Labs, which had updated the AV system at the Pound Ridge Town House, at $95,957, and from Hudson Valley Audio Visual, at $67,783. 

A revised AV system could feature tabletop microphones or microphones placed on the ceiling of the room, she said. 

The board did not take a vote on accepting a bid at last week’s meeting and will continue to discuss the project when it meets in February.

“I don’t think we’re prepared to make a decision tonight,” Nelson said.