Update: The Rockford-Register Star reports library leaders approved the purchase at last night's meeting.
If the Rockford Public Library agrees at tonight’s meeting to acquire the building next door, it could benefit the pending brownfield remediation of the site.
It could also help the development of a brand new main library.
“There is none of the material underneath that building that we’re dealing with underneath the library,” Paul Logli, president of the Rockford Public Library Board of Trustees, said. “Now, we’ll be doing an environmental study of the building to make sure of that and that will be something done before we complete the deal.”
Logli says he’s confident the $300,000 purchase of the building at 227 N. Wyman will happen. Once razed, that property will have a dual purpose.
“This will provide a staging area for the equipment during the remediation and, in the likelihood that the library will then be rebuilt at the same site, it also provides the entire site which will make it much easier to plan a newer, state-of-the-art building at that site,” Logli said.
When all is said and done, the library footprint will span the entire block between Jefferson and Mulberry on the riverfront.
