06/04/2026
We’ve had some folks ask us why we don’t just make the Carnegie Library accessible. Wouldn’t that be cheaper? It’s a fair question. And it was the first thing we looked at when we began this process. It quickly became apparent that simply adding an accessible bathroom solves one problem, but opens up several more.
A Property Condition Assessment of the Carnegie building commissioned by the Town of Montague in 2020 estimated that the cost of adding an accessible bathroom would be $80,000. This sounds good until you read on and find that this doesn’t include design (add at least 15% for a project of this scale); it doesn’t include project management costs (add another 15% for supervision, temporary facilities, clean up and dumpsters, and other costs not specifically covered in the materials and labor for the actual construction); and it doesn’t include the contractor’s overhead and profit (probably also 15% for a project of this size.)
Do the math and that’s $121,670 in 2021 dollars. With the price increases caused by supply chain disruptions and labor issues during Covid, general inflation, and price increases from tariffs, those 2021 dollars have now increased by as much as 35%, putting our new estimated total at $164,254.50.
This is still cheaper than a new building, but we’ve only just begun. Where are we going to put it? It has to be on the main floor because that’s the only space you can get to in a wheelchair. The accessible ramp gives you access to the children’s area, the adult reading/computer area, the Local History Room and no place else. Even the gateway leading to the stacks is not accessible. This leaves us two corners of the main floor – the staff entrance and back stairs to the second floor, or the Local History Room. Code allows a grandfathered nonconforming condition to remain but you can’t make it worse, so the back stairs, treacherous as they are, have to stay. They are the second means of egress for the second floor. The only possible space is in the Local History Room.
Aside from being the only limited space we have for display and access to local history books and artifacts, this is also the only private meeting space available in the library. Since reopening in 2025 this room has been in nearly constant use for quiet work or study, small meetings (it seats up to 6 people), and a convenient location for open office hours for elected officials.
But let’s say we decide that a bathroom is more important. This is the space we have, this is what we use. This room is in the southeast corner of the building. The existing bathroom and the location where the sewer exits the building is in the northwest corner. Add a currently unknown amount to the figure above to get the plumbing across the basement ceiling and tied in to the old cast iron sewer pipe. Since this is a Town owned building the DPW will be responsible if there are problems with the old pipe, so we won’t add anything to this cost for that, but if problems are discovered it will be a cost borne by the Town.
With this one simple bathroom we have easily exceeded the $100,000 cap set by Massachusetts 521 CMR, which triggers other accessibility improvements required by the Architectural Access Board. The 2021 Property Condition Assessment notes that the existing desk has no accessible transaction area. This would have to be corrected, adding at least another $10,000.00.
The adult stacks themselves are not accessible. The current stacks were designed for 1906, when patrons brought a card to the desk and the librarian went to the shelf to retrieve the book. They were not designed for public browsing. The rows are about 30” apart and the books are stacked 6 shelves high. Bringing this area up to code would mean eliminating nearly every other row, and reducing the height to 3 rows of shelves. Half as many rows and half as many shelves on each row reduces our available stacks to 25% of our current capacity. We don’t have an estimated cost for this, but we should allow at least $50,000 - $60,000 to remove the books, remove the old shelves, fix the floor where the old shelves were attached, and purchase and install new shelves.
At this point we’re at about $225,000.00. We haven’t even addressed the crumbling asbestos tile in the entryway, the replacement of the old, undersized HVAC system, the new roofing, the flooding in the west end of the basement every time we have a heavy rain or the repointing of the masonry on the exterior of the building – all things that were identified as necessary upcoming repairs in the Property Condition Assessment.
Imagine you’re on the Capital Improvement Committee, or the Finance Committee, or the Selectboard. Are you going to approve a warrant article for $225,000.00 to add a bathroom and lose 75% of the book storage space and the only private meeting room we have in our main library? Are you going to approve the additional $500,000.00 to $750,000.00 for the other anticipated repairs?
None of this even addresses the basement or second floor. To get to the second floor we need an elevator, and as has been demonstrated, there is no place for one in the existing footprint. This means an addition, and the only place we can go is to the south, into the driveway, cutting off access to the ramp. If we extend the existing rear gable the addition would be 30’ wide by about 12’ deep. 360 square feet times 2 floors is 720 square feet. Using prevailing wage and new construction cost estimates for FY27 of about $1,100/ sq ft as a guide we’re looking at an estimated price tag of at least $800,000.00. Taking into account prevailing wage, a difficult site, cutting into the existing building and the small scale of the project it may be more. On top of this add another $400,000.00 to $500,000.00 for the elevator itself.
Before we can use the second floor we need an engineering assessment, as there’s a question about whether the 1906 construction can handle 2026 requirements. Repairs to the floor system would likely impact the ceiling below. This cost is unknown without an engineer’s report. The second floor space is dark, with only 4 tiny windows, and because of the building’s construction and Historic Preservation restrictions we can’t add any more natural light. But it is space, and could become the new children’s room.
This increase in potential occupancy will require a second public restroom. The good news is we can probably fit a bathroom on each floor in the addition, along with the elevator and new stairs. The bad news is we don’t reclaim much of the lost shelf capacity on the first floor because the stacks area now has to accommodate a walkway to the front desk. People have requested more quiet work and reading space so the old children’s area would likely mirror the existing adult reading area, with books around the perimeter and a worktable in the middle.
An elevator and new stairs may or may not get us to the basement. The floor level of the basement is about 6 feet below grade so we’d have to go down a minimum of 7-8’ to prep for the concrete slab. The depth depends on the conditions underground. If there’s ledge under the driveway we can’t blast safely, and even the vibration of a rock hammer might endanger the library or other buildings in the neighborhood. There are already cracks in the southwest corner on the 2nd floor of unknown origin. One crack has moved 5’ since a benchmark was noted in 2021. Even the masonry steeple on the church on the next block up the hill might be affected depending on the nature and orientation of the ledge.
Lack of an accessible route to the basement means the Friends’ booksale can’t be held there. It could also be a problem if we had a qualified job applicant who couldn’t manage the existing stairs. Are we going to risk a lawsuit by not hiring them because the office they’d need to access is down a steep flight of stairs? This is actually already a risk but we’ve been lucky so far…
Finally, let’s talk about parking. I am thankfully perfectly capable right now of parking across the street and crossing at the light, or parking on the street and climbing the granite steps to the heavy front door. Mass.gov statistics say that at least 20% of people middle age or older don’t share that outlook, and the percentage increases with age. Libraries are a haven for parents with little kids, but not if you have to unload your toddlers right beside the travel lane or maneuver a stroller up the sidewalk around the building to get to the ramp or the elevator in the back. No amount of money solves that problem as there is nowhere to go. A previous plan included a few spaces to the west of the building, but that was before the Veterans’ Park was built.
We looked at all of these questions and ultimately reached the conclusion that, as much as we love the Carnegie, there is no good way to solve all of the problems that the building and the site present. Even 3 or 4 million dollars is not going to add the book capacity, study rooms, light and airy children’s space, computer stations, or any of the other things that existing library users and people who would like to be able to use the library have requested. I’ve been to enough Town Meetings to know that even a $225,000 request for basic accessibility upgrades would be a hard sell once people understood that we’d be paying all that money just to make fewer library services more accessible.
If you want to see for yourself the challenges facing this building or ask additional questions, join me at the Carnegie Library next Thursday, 6/11 at 5:00PM or next Friday 6/12 at 11:00AM for a tour.
Tricia Perham, Co Chair of the Library Building Steering Committee, Library Trustee, Chair of the Library Building Committee, and Town Meeting Member
