Council to consider furniture for Auburn Public Library

Auburn Public Library needs new furniture for its new digs, and at today’s meeting, it’s asking the city to help.

The library’s expansion, a building to house youth services, is scheduled to be finished in April. But they need new furniture - shelves, chairs and tables - to house patrons and books, Library Director Margie Huffman said.

“We’re adding a totally new wing, and we have to furnish it,” Huffman said.

The request asks for steel shelving, end panels and canopy tops for shelves and tables and chairs. The requested furniture matches the existing library furniture, Huffman said.

State contracts with suppliers mean the city doesn’t have to rebid the requests, she said.

The requested items are:

- Steel shelves from Borroughs in Kalamazoo, Mich., installed by Alabama Contract Sales in the amount of $74,230.83.

- Buckstaff Woodford end panels and canopy tops from Alabama Contract Sales in Auburn in the amount of $14,244.40.

- Buckstaff Cambridge end panels and canopy tops from Alabama Contract Sales in the amount of $35,255.35.

- Buckstaff Cambridge tables and chairs from Alabama Contract Sales in the amount of $13,113.10.

“We’re buying the identical products so we can disassemble and reassemble at will so everything fits together, so we don’t have to throw things out and start from scratch,” Huffman said. The existing shelving is a holdover from the old Ross Street library, she said.

“It was marvelous lifetime quality steel shelving, and there was no reason to go off and leave that and start anew,” Huffman said. “We brought that shelving with us and bought more of the same when we got over here.”

The expansion is necessary because the library has outgrown its building, Huffman has said. Construction work is more or less on schedule, she said.

“So far, they’ve been able to do work without very much disruption,” she said. “It’s gone very smoothly … They’re getting the brickwork up now. It’s going to look nice.”

The addition will house children and youth books and programs, and the old youth programs room is being renovated to provide more space for additional computers.

Future requests will include additional computer stations, Huffman said.

Other items on today’s agenda include contracts for a rotary lobe pump for the H.C. Morgan Pollution Control Facility and a flow monitoring study. Utility easements for sewer lines for industrial developments will also be considered. The council meets at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at 141 N. Ross St.

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