Johnson County County sees progress on Monticello library
The long-awaited Monticello library branch in Shawnee is a step closer to reality this week after the Johnson County Commission approved bond funding of up to $1.13 million for preliminary costs and design work.
The commission unanimously approved a measure to redirect some of the proceeds of a 2014 bond sale. Most of the $4 million from that sale has gone into a major remodeling of the Central Resource Library, but a portion was to have been used to construct a small outbuilding to house a lending machine on the lot of the planned Monticello Library at 22435 W. 66th St.
But approval this summer of a property tax increase for expansion and maintenance of the county library system has changed that. With more tax money coming in next year’s budget, the library can now build a larger facility in the Monticello neighborhood. The library board is considering whether to make off-hours lending a part of the interior of that building, said Sean Casserley, county librarian.
The county already has the lending machine, located outside the Mill Creek Activity Center, 6518 Vista Drive. But it has never worked properly, said Casserley. The machine’s concept is similar to the Redbox movie lending machines. Patrons can choose from a limited number of the more popular materials at the machine, which then dispenses them.
But the device has proven unreliable so far, possibly because of the extremes of Midwestern weather, he said. Library staff continues to test the machine, but have not yet made it available to the public because of that, he said.
The library staff will keep working with D-Tech International, the supplier of the machine, he said. But if they can’t get it to work properly it will be returned.
The Monticello branch is still in the early planning stages and will have to come back to the commission again to get approval for the building. The action on Thursday will allow the library’s board to begin the process by seeking proposals to do design work. Once that’s done, officials will be able to put a cost estimate on the building plans.
A library to serve western Shawnee and Lenexa has been talked about for almost a decade. The county bought 2.14 acres on West 66th Street in 2010, but nothing has been built on it. Proponents say a new branch is necessary to serve the growing population in that part of the county.
Because of the lengthy delay through the recession, the Monticello branch is a top priority for the library board, as it settles how to allocate the approximately $175 million that will be raised from a three-quarter-mill property tax increase over the next 20 years. A mill equals $1 of tax per each $1,000 of taxable value.
The county commission also reallocated about $1.5 million in bonds originally intended for improvements at the county courthouse.
That money will now go to upgrade the uninterruptable power supply, heating and air conditioning systems at the county communication center, 11880 S. Sunset in Olathe.
The upgrade is needed because the county will move computer equipment from its administration building to the communications center, officials said. That additional load will require additional cooling capacity at the communications center.
The commission sold about $2 million in bonds last year for courthouse improvements. Some of that work has been done or is in progress, but other upgrades have been put on hold as the commission decides whether to build a new courthouse or annex.
Repairing or rebuilding the courthouse has been on the county’s to-do list for more than a decade. Built in 1951 with an addition in 1972, the current courthouse, experts say, has become outdated, wastes energy, lacks technology needed for modern court procedures and only minimally complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Commissioners have vowed to address the issue this year and have begun to narrow their choices on where and how much to build. Funding has so far not been decided, but some commissioners have said they’d like to see it put to a public vote.
The next discussion is scheduled for Nov. 12.
This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 4:04 PM with the headline "Johnson County County sees progress on Monticello library."