New carpet, new furniture, new paint, new shelving—a thorough facelift for the Sonoma County Library branch in Healdsburg is planned to take place in the coming year.
The downside: The library may be largely or completely closed for extended periods during the remodel, though the system is attempting to continue with services as best it can during the construction period. That may last as long as six months, according to Branch Manager Jon Haupt.
“We will be able to offer limited service out of our Meeting Room, which has already been upgraded to some extent; and we are in talks with the city of Healdsburg about alternative locations for other public programming,” Haupt said. “We anticipate some combination of locations to accommodate the various activities we plan to offer.”
Though the upgrades primarily affect the interior space at the regional branch, the exterior of the familiar building at the corner of Piper and Center streets will see improvements as well. These include adding windows to the south wall of the library facing Piper Street—windows that will allow more natural light into the 11,400-square-foot facility, opened in 1988.
The $100,000 provided by the Friends of Healdsburg Library will support the windows and improvements to the children’s and teen areas. “Although we have the funding we need for the basic changes, the support of the Friends will make the end result in those areas especially exciting and inviting for our community members,” said Haupt.
Other changes will include combining circulation and reference desks into a single service area near the center of the building. In addition, a series of smaller gender-neutral restrooms will be installed to replace the two gender-specific restrooms currently in use.
Senior staff of the Healdsburg Branch have been involved in discussions about these improvements, said Haupt, along with Sonoma County Library staff including Sarah Vantrease, public services division manager of the system.
Upgrades to the improvements to the HVAC and electrical systems are also anticipated as part of the makeover, which is expected to cost more than the $2.6 million already allocated by Sonoma County Library and the $100,000 provided by Friends of the Healdsburg Library.
Because the building is owned by the city of Healdsburg, the city will also be on the hook for some of the capital improvements, such as now-required ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) enhancements and other exterior modifications.
The primary source of funding for the upgrades will be funds from Measure Y, passed in 2016 to levy a 0.125-cent sales tax for library modernization and improvements.
Details of many of these plans remain unclear, as the final plans of the construction project are still being developed in anticipation of the awarding of construction contracts in May or June. A November 2024 date is being targeted for completion of the Healdsburg Branch Library improvements.
Several other facilities in the county library’s 14-branch system will also see improvements in the coming year, at a cost of over $10 million. These include Petaluma Regional Library, the Northwest Santa Rosa Library, Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library, Guerneville Regional Library and the History and Genealogy Library in downtown Santa Rosa.
