Construction of New Library Gains Momentum

With the now off the town's plate, the construction of the New Westwood Public Library is beginning to gain momentum with the announcement of the tentative contractor for the project.

The Westwood Permanent Building Committee recently voted to enter negotiations with TLT Construction of Wakefield, the low-bidder for the project, Library Director Tom Viti said last week.

While he wasn't immediately certain if the contract had been officially signed, the deal with TLT - who was recommended by Design Technique, Inc., the project management firm involved - is pretty much a done deal.

"It's probably just a formality at this point," Viti said of the contract.

What's more, Westwood Treasurer Jim Gavin and Finance Director Pam Dukeman were able to obtain a compound library bond rate of 3.37 percent, a rate lower than the original 5 percent the town had used to estimate the cost of the project to Westwood residents, Viti announced recently.

"That's the interest rate that the town pays to borrow the money," Viti said. "We did say to the town that both the cost of the construction and the bond rates were very advantageous during this period. If we waited, it's only going to go up."

The project, which costs an estimated $12 million, is essentially being paid for in three ways: money that was raised (such as a of about $300,000 and about $800,000 raised in cash and pledges), money granted by the state (Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is giving the town about $3.7 million), and the remaining amount to be paid by the town (about $9.3 million).

At the rate the town was able to obtain, the average yearly payment for homeowners in Westwood for the project is $97, with a high of $119 per year and a low of $73 per year, Dukeman said last week.

In terms of when the actual project will break ground, Viti said he wasn't certain, but the library has already begun working on shifting its hours from the to its on Washington Street.

"We've set our date for switching to our new schedule," Viti said. "Because there'll be no marking in the library, we have decided that we should shift some staff from the main library to the (Islington) Branch, and to do that we needed to close some hours at the main library and extend hours at the branch."

The library will be cutting back by about 15 hours a week from the main library, with about 14 of those shifted over to the Islington Branch, Viti said.

"There is parking behind the branch library and across the street in the municipal lot," he said.

Meanwhile, several library programs, such as and , will be held at during the construction of the library.

"They've been very gracious about offering us space," Viti said.

The new schedule of new library hours will begin on Monday, April 4, and can be seen here.