Appleton considers $175,000 in security improvements to public library yet this year

APPLETON - City officials have recommended proceeding with $175,000 in security improvements at the Appleton Public Library now that the prospect of a new library is at least three years away.

Library Director Colleen Rortvedt and Director of Facilities Management Dean Gazza had discussed the security enhancements last year, but they stopped short of a budget request in anticipation of the city starting construction this year on a new $30 million library as part of a mixed-use development in place of the Soldiers Square parking ramp.

Mayor Tim Hanna's latest timetable has the construction of the new library starting in mid-2021 and finishing by the end of 2022.

"Even should the mixed-use proposal move forward, we're going be here (at 225 N. Oneida St.) for a few years, so we need to make these necessary upgrades," Rortvedt told The Post-Crescent.

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Rortvedt and Gazza are seeking authorization to use $175,000 of the $5 million already budgeted for the new library to complete the security improvements. Gazza said that is preferable to budgeting the money in 2020.

"We're going to end up doing it anyway," he told the Finance Committee. "It's better to get it in place now than to defer it another six months. It could be effective if something occurred versus waiting."

The Finance Committee agreed with the request. The Common Council will consider it next week.

"If we are going to continue to use this facility, we're going to have to continue to make expenditures like this," Alderman Kyle Lobner said, "and we're going to have to continue to explain to our constituents that instead of putting money toward the long-term solution, we are continuing to patch this up."

If the money is reallocated, the Library Board could authorize the work at its Aug. 20 meeting, and the upgrades could be done this year.

The project would improve the egress from two secluded areas, upgrade door alarms and automatic locks, add access controls to employee areas, increase camera coverage and upgrade communication systems.

Gazza said some of the wireless monitoring equipment could be transferred to the new library.

Rortvedt said the May 15 shooting at Valley Transit Center that spilled onto the library property wasn't the impetus for the security upgrades, but it has entered the discussion. An exchange of gunfire between Ruben Houston of Wausau and Appleton police officers resulted in the deaths of Houston and Appleton firefighter Mitch Lundgaard and injuries to two others.

"We've had questions from the public," Rortvedt said. "We want to make sure that people feel safe in the library. I guess I can't say that it played no role, but these are things we would be doing regardless."

The library has had a security guard inside the building for the past 18 months. A shared security service has kept watch over the transit center and library parking lot since 2012.

Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.