Rising construction costs to delay Gritters Library rebuild

Gritters Library rendering — *A rendering of the proposed reconstruction of Gritters Library, which is to replace a nearly 50-year-old branch in Shaw Park.*

A proposed contract to begin construction of the replacement building for Gritters Library in Northeast Cobb was pulled by Commissioner JoAnn Birrell Tuesday because she couldn’t get enough support from her colleagues.

Near the end of a five-hour meeting, Birrell said she was withdrawing a $10.5 million proposal for the new library building and a renovation of the adjacent Northeast Cobb Community Center.

That’s $2.5 million more than what was initially projected because of what county officials said were rising construction costs.

The contract proposal would have made up for the shortfall with general fund revenues, which some commissioners objected to.

“Until we can find out where an additional $2.5 million is coming from, it’s the consensus of the board that we’ll explore other avenues,” Birrell said somberly.

“It’s near and dear to my heart and it kills me not to be able to move this forward,” she said. “We’ve got some work to do, but we’ll get there.”

Both projects are earmarked in the 2016 Cobb SPLOST. The Gritters project received a $1.9 million capital outlay grant last year from Georgia Public Library Services, while the community center renovations were pegged at $1.2 million.

Last December, Cobb officials even held a groundbreaking for the new Gritters building and a new Cobb Police Precinct 6 station next to the Mountain View Aquatic Center. Work to start that latter project also has been delayed due to construction cost increases.

Before the vote, Abby Shiffman, a Cobb Library trustee board member, urged commissioners to finalize the Gritters contract.

Construction was tentatively scheduled to begin in December to rebuild Gritters, which opened at its current location in Shaw Park in 1973.

Initially the plan was to renovate the building at a cost of $2.9 million, but later it was determined that an entirely new facility was needed, at a cost of $6.8 million.

Gritters is the last of the library projects remaining in the 2016 SPLOST. That collection period funded the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that opened in early 2018, replacing the East Marietta Library.

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