Gaithersburg Library Project Moves Forward

Gaithersburg and Montgomery Village residents who have been waiting anxiously for the Gaithersburg Library to reopen might now recognize the light at the end of the tunnel.

This week the County Department of Procurement awarded the construction bid to Henley Construction Co., Inc., of Gaithersburg, for work on the $25.6 million remodel.

According to a release by Montgomery County Public Libraries, construction is set to start by late fall, and is expected to wrap up in Spring of 2013.

Henley doesn't list any libraries in its online project portfolio, but they're no strangers to working in Gaithersburg.

They completed the historic renovation of the Thomas Cannery Building, and built Lakelands Park Middle School in the Kentlands.

In fact, most of the projects they list in their portfolio are schools in Maryland and Virginia.

Construction was initially projected to start as early as the end of last summer. The branch had to shut down several months prior because of deep cuts to the county’s budget for libraries.

Barring further delays, the branch will have been closed three years by the time county officials cut the ribbon in mid-2013. 

Though the county is running a temporary branch in a converted storefront at Lakeforest Mall, it is less than one-tenth the original library’s size and doesn’t have community space or computer terminals.

The renovation will more than double the library's size, make it more inviting, provide more room for activities and community groups, and house a satellite office of the county’s immigrant welcome center.

Most of the delay traces back to permitting and design issues with new federal standards for stormwater management.

Two county agencies—the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of General Services—got bogged down in an exchange of submissions and questions and re-submissions.

DGS had to redesign the library’s stormwater plan three times: in June 2010, again in November and again in January.

DEP granted the permit in April and the construction plan was at last sent out to potential contractors on Thursday.

At a in July, County Executive Isiah Leggett lamented the “disconnect” and the “lack of coordination” but vowed that the project will soon start moving.

“As with many projects in the state and in the county, some of the best laid plans are not as you intended,” he said. “We are now moving aggressively to try to get this back on track.”

By the Numbers

• Original library: 33,726 square feet

• Interim library: 3,000 square feet

• Renovated library: more than 60,000 square feet on the ground floor, plus another 7,500 square feet above.

• More than 100,000 people live within three miles of the library

• More than 70,000 card-holders live in the eight ZIP codes considered to be the library’s domain.