BEVERLY — In a rare rejection for Mayor Mike Cahill, the City Council on Monday night voted down a proposed $18 million library project.
Councilors expressed frustration that the cost had ballooned from its original $3.75 million price tag, and questioned whether such an expensive project would make it difficult to pay for other needed capital improvements, including at City Hall and Central Fire Station.
“The feedback I’ve heard is that $18 million is too much to spend on an HVAC system for a building valued at $6 million,” Ward 6 Councilor Matt St. Hilaire said.
The proposal by Cahill called for replacing the library’s failing HVAC system with a geothermal system, repairing the leaking roof, and making other improvements to the historic building at 32 Essex St. He said the project would eliminate the use of fossil fuels from the existing gas-fired system, help the city reduce its carbon footprint, and generate long-term operational and energy savings.
The City Council approved an initial $2 million for the project in June 2022 based on an estimated cost of $3.75 million. But when the project came back before the council in January, councilors were told the cost was now $18 million.
Councilors on Monday night expressed frustration that they were kept in the dark about the price increase for so long, and also said the city has other priorities that it should address first, including renovations to Central Fire Station, City Hall and the McPherson Youth Center.
“We should’ve had a better understanding that this was not only going to be an HVAC replacement but a much larger building project,”Councilor-at-large Brendan Sweeney said.
The council voted down the project, 5-3. Sweeney, St. Hilaire, Hannah Bowen, Steve Crowley and Todd Rotondo voted no. Julie Flowers, Kathleen Feldman and Danielle Spang voted yes. Ward 4 Councilor Scott Houseman was not present. The project needed a two-thirds majority to pass.
Before the vote was taken, Cahill acknowledged that his administration should have done a better job of keeping the City Council updated on the project cost.
“We did not intentionally hold things back from you, but we should have come to you more quickly,” Cahill said. “Clearly that would have gone better for everyone.”
Cahill vowed to provide regular updates to the council on future capital projects.
“It’s better for all of us if we make a plan to come in on a regular basis and do an across-the-board project update,” he said. “It can only do us all and do the community good.”
Before the vote, members of the library trustees, the city’s Clean Energy Advisory Committee, and Green Beverly all spoke in favor of the project.
Library trustee Joanne Panunzio said the library is used as a cooling center in the summer and a warming center in the winter, yet the temperature could only get to 54 degrees one day. She said falling icicles have forced the closure of the Winter Street entrance and that lack of humidity control is affecting the preservation of “valuable treasures” in the Beverly Room and the Will Barnet Room.
“We need to think of this not as an HVAC project but as a major renovation project,” Panunzio said.
Dean Berg, executive director of Green Beverly, said he “almost fell off my chair” when he saw the price increase earlier this year. But he said the city will recoup the costs of a geothermal system because gas is more expensive in the long term. He also noted the unknown cost of carbon on the environment, referencing the ongoing flooding problems at Lynch Park.
“We have an obligation to our future generations,” Berg said. “I would like to see my kids and my grandkids have Lynch Park.”
Other residents spoke against the project. South Terrace resident Gin Wallace said “in what world does it make sense” to spend $18 million on a building that’s assessed at $6 million, even if that assessment is low.
“What’s been proposed is the platinum version of an HVAC system,” Wallace said. “Can’t we be sustainable with a bronze or silver system, maybe even gold?”
Willow Street resident Toni Musante said the City Council was “blindsided” by the project, which she said “has been going on behind closed doors for two years.”
“All the hearings are after the fact to placate the public and to give the impression that we are being listened to,” Musante said.
Flowers, the council president, said she supported the project, noting that the city would receive federal tax money to help pay for it and that the council’s budget analyst, Gerry Perry, said the city could afford it.
Flowers also cited the importance of the libraries to a community, calling them “among the last of the great equalizers what we have in our society.”
“An investment in our library to me is as much about equity and access as it is about sustainability,” Flowers said.
Bowen said she has often been the “lone vote” against projects because of a lack of information from the administration. She noted the many other needs at city buildings, including the Senior Center, public services, and elementary school roofs.
“Without those plans in place, locking us in to this size of a liability and commitment doesn’t feel right to me yet,” Bowen said.
Sweeney said the city should prioritize the renovation of City Hall and Central Fire Station, make short-term needed repairs to the library, then revisit the library HVAC system “in another two years.”