_{Thumbnail photo: The Del Norte County Library has purchased the former Ben Franklin building and plans to turn it into the new library. Library Board President Andrew Napier said the library has about two years to renovate it. | Photos courtesy of Andrew Napier}

Three years after its board decided that staying in Downtown Crescent City outweighed the tsunami risk, the Del Norte County Library will eventually move into the old Ben Franklin building.

At just under 15,000 square feet, Library Board Chair Andrew Napier says he envisions a maker space with access to 3D printers, laser engravers and button makers. There’s office space for Del Norte Reads, room for community meetings and, potentially, a Friends of the Del Norte County Library cafe. 

But right now, the building at 1072 3rd Street is an empty shell, Napier told Redwood Voice Community News on Thursday. The library has about two years to renovate it and move its 50,000-plus books, periodicals, movies and other materials in, he said. 

“Currently, I am working to find an engineer who can give us some plans for how we want to renovate the space,” Napier said. “I did a walkthrough with the city (building) inspector who said he didn’t think permitting would be particularly difficult, so we’ll submit our plans for permitting. We’ll go out to bid for contractors for the renovation and we’ll get the renovation rolling here.”

As the Del Norte County Library District embarks on its new chapter, it’s seeking help from the community. Its board members created a fundraiser through Zeffy — a free online platform for nonprofits. Board members hope to raise $50,000 through the platform.

The Library Board also created a wishlist for library partners. In addition to a cafe space, maker space and a plan to bring Del Norte Reads under one roof, hoped-for items include more computers and workstations as well as soundproof booths. It hopes to offer a larger children’s section with a separate bathroom as well as the ability to close the space for noise or safety.

One thing Napier said he’s looking forward to being able to offer is a “library of things.” Currently patrons can find board games, movies, video games, a radon detector, a seed library, state park passes and telescopes. 

“You can get specialty baking pans. At some places you can check out a lawnmower,” he said. “I’ve heard they have computers to take home or microscopes or telescopes.”

The goal, Napier said, is to complete the new library’s renovation by next summer.

“The sellers gave us pretty generous terms,” he said. “We are going to stay in our current site for two years rent free. We’re just reimbursing them for insurance and property tax costs.”

The Del Norte County Library Board has been looking for a new site for several years. According to Napier, he and his colleagues found meeting minutes “from quite awhile ago” focusing on the possibility of building a new structure. Because of the expense, he said, that isn’t feasible.

Napier said it was when most of the existing library board came on about three years ago that they decided to stay in the downtown area rather than move out of the tsunami zone. It was important that it stay walkable and that the library is part of Crescent City’s overall efforts to redevelop its downtown area, he said.

According to DNCL Library Manager Beth Quetschke, it was also important that the library be close to public transportation services. She mentioned the Redwood Coast Transit Authority’s transit center in particular.

“We want to limit as many barriers of access as possible,” she said. “With us being still downtown, it’s in the tsunami zone, but the benefit is we’re walking distance from a lot of places and there are so many bus stops in the area — we want to meet the community where they’re at and serve them, and tsunamis here in Crescent City are just a part of life.”

According to Napier, while the library’s overall budget is less than $500,000 a year, it had roughly $350,000 set aside in a fund for a new building. The total cost for purchasing the new building was $1.5 million, he said. 

The Del Norte Library District also sold its current building to the former Ben Franklin building owner for $500,000, Napier said.

One component of the new library will be incorporating it into a redesigned Downtown Crescent City. The new library will be just down the street from the new Redwood Downtown retail and residential development that is slated to go into the space the old Daly’s building currently occupies.

Napier said library board members have spoken with city officials as well as Don Arambula, of Crandall Arambula, the consultant working with Crescent City on the redevelopment, primarily about parking. Shared parking is an option, but, he said, that will have to be actively managed once the library moves in.

In addition to renovating the new library space, the material housed in the current building will have to be moved to its new home. While the shelves will be installed in the new building by a construction crew and movers will ferry most items over, Napier said he envisions a ceremonial book chain.

“It’s not super far, we’ll have members of the community line up and pass the books one at a time over to the new library,” he said. Del Norte County deserves a library and a community space like all the other communities around have. Just because we have a small property base doesn’t mean we don’t deserve a great place to recreate and read and educate yourself. Even just to hang out downtown.”