Architects from Cody, Sheridan and Greeley, Colorado, have all expressed interest in designing a renovated and expanded Powell Library.

At the request of library boosters, Park County commissioners put out a call for a building consultant to design a bigger and better facility. Three proposals were turned in by an April 12 deadline: from Plan One/Architects of Cody, Arete Design Group of Sheridan, and GSG Architecture of Greeley.

County and library officials are now reviewing the firms’ qualifications and are seeking public input before making a recommendation to Park County commissioners in the coming weeks.

Commissioners will presumably choose one of the firms to redesign the Powell Library, but they have not committed to doing anything with the designs — and the chosen architect’s work will be paid for with private, not taxpayer, dollars.

At the commission’s April 20 meeting, Chairman Lee Livingston made a point of saying that picking a designer for the improvement project “doesn’t mean we’re moving forward with it.”

“This is the first of many steps towards hopefully getting a new or expanded library over there,” Livingston said.

Regardless, Geoff Baumann, the chair of the Powell Library Task Force, said later in the meeting that, “We’re glad to have this step out of the way.”

A selection committee made up of Baumann, Park County Library System Director Karen Horner, Park County Library Board Chair Pat Stuart, Park County Engineer Brian Edwards and Commissioner Dossie Overfield will interview the firms and grade them on a rubric. Their recommendation will ultimately be presented to the full commission and weighed against the firms’ cost estimates — figures that are being kept inside sealed envelopes until the initial recommendation is made.

Overfield said the committee plans to take the information “and disseminate it a little bit in Powell with the public and get some of their thoughts about what they liked or didn’t like about what they’re seeing.”

Copies of the three proposals will be available at the Powell Library, Stuart said, and members of the public are invited to attend a Friends of the Powell Branch Library meeting tonight (Tuesday) to discuss the project. The friends group’s regular meeting starts at 5:30 p.m., with the community discussion about the architect set for 6 p.m. in the library’s meeting room.

Stuart said she thinks much of the recommendation will hinge on the interview process, as each firm has experience with libraries and unique strengths.

Library boosters have been pushing for renovations to the Powell Library for years, contending the community has outgrown the facility and its roughly 9,000 square feet of usable space. 

The county’s request for proposals (RFP) suggested a two-phase process for expansion. In an initial, roughly $1.5 million phase, a 2,600 square foot second floor would be added on the building’s east end. A more costly, second phase would extend the building to the north into the parking lot, in either one or two stories, perhaps depending on the amount of funding that’s available.

Expansion or no expansion, one of the wrinkles that eventually needs to be sorted out is with the land. The City of Powell owns the property on which the library sits and leases it to the county under a contract that’s set to end in 2035.

Commissioner Overfield said county and city officials are discussing whether the lease should be extended or if the land should be transferred to the county. However, she indicated that it’s only a matter of finding the time to work out a solution.

“I think everybody’s willing to move forward to try to get this issue solved with the land ownership,” Overfield said.

Under the timeline laid out in the RFP, the chosen architect would gather public input and issue a draft report by October and a final report in January.