Gritters Library rebuild to proceed

The prospects for the rebuilding of the Gritters Library have looked bleak in recent months, as the project faced a $2.5 million shortfall due to rising construction costs.

Cobb officials have been working to bring down the cost of the project, which had been priced at $10.5 million and included the renovation of the adjacent Northeast Cobb Commnity Center.

On Tuesday, the Cobb Board of Commissioners unanimously signed off on a $9.8 million maximum price tag, including $1 million in funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.

The contract was awarded to Batson-Cook Company after county officials cobbled together a variety of funding sources to close the gap.

Last month, commissioners closed out spending the last $98 million of the county’s $147 million ARPA allotment, including $21.5 million in economic development projects.

In that funding base is $3.7 million earmarked for CobbWorks, the county’s workforce development agency, which had been planning to build a Workforce Cobb operation at the new Gritters branch.

In addition, the $1.2 million cost for work on the community center will be coming out of the 2022 SPLOST Shaw Park Repurpose project. That building will be demolished and the new community center will be included in the Gritters Library building.

More than $719,000 in savings comes from 2011 SPLOST library projects and fiscal year 2023 library system capital projects.

And District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who couldn’t convince her colleagues last September to shore up the gap with general fund revenues, directed the remaining $112,976 of ARPA funding of her $1 million for district projects to the library/community center project.

(You can read more details here.)

“This has been a long time coming,” Birrell said in making a motion to approve the contract. “This is one of my 2016 SPLOST projects that is hopefully coming to fruition.”

She also thanked library advocates, including library trustees and the non-profit Cobb Library Foundation, for their persistence in urging a resolution to the funding issue.

“Team Cobb County,” chairwoman Lisa Cupid said. “There are a number of players in this room working to make this happen.”

“It was truly a team effort,” said a relieved Travis Stalcup, director of the Cobb property management office. “Everybody kicked in. Proud of everybody.”

The Gritters project was included in the 2016 Cobb SPLOST, with $6.8 million originally budgeted for the library and $1.2 million for the community center.

There was a groundbreaking event in late 2021 after Cobb received a $1.9 million capital outlay grant from the Georgia Public Library Services.

In January, the board’s three Democrats voted to seek another $1 million in state funding. It was at that meeting Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the board’s Republicans, were dismissed from the dais for not voting due to their objections over Cobb’s home rule redistricting challenge.

But on Tuesday, after the 5-0 vote was recorded, the other four commissioners applauded Birrell for her advocacy.

Gritters opened near Shaw Park in 1973. Originally plans called to renovate the library, but county officials later said a complete rebuild was necessary.

The new facility will include 15,000 square feet and in addition to providing traditional library services it will include a hub for workforce development, job skills and lifelong learning.

In addition to CobbWorks, Gritters has partnerships with the Northeast Cobb Business Association, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and nearby higher educational institutions.

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