Great News! Five New Orleans city libraries to be rebuilt starting in April

Posted by Laura on 23 January, 2009 in Uncategorized

Bigad Shaban / Eyewitness News
WWLTV - Wednesday, January 21, 2009
http://www.wwltv.com/topstories/stories/wwl012109tplibrary.1925d066.html#

Five city libraries shuttered since Katrina will be replaced by brand new buildings with construction beginning in April, a city official told the city council Wednesday.

Randy Richardson, the Recovery Program Manager, said construction would begin on a new Algiers Regional library by April and that others to be redeveloped include the New Orleans East, Norman Mayer, Robert E. Smith and Nora Navra branches.

“This is now enabling us to make many facilities larger than they were,” said Rica Trigs, Chief Operating Officer for the New Orleans Public Library. “This means total restoration to the library system; it brings us back to the 13 locations pre-Katrina.”

Currently there are 11 libraries open throughout the city, but of those, five are still being run out temporary locations like the modular site in Lakeview.

Monique Bourgeois lives on the same block as the Katrina battered Lakeview branch, and says she can’t wait for it and the four others to be demolished.

“It would be great for the neighborhood because we’ve actually been waiting for something to be done because it’s just an eye sore at the moment,” said Bourgeois.

And by late next year, the building should be gone and a better bigger library built in its place, according to Richardson.

He said construction should take between 400-500 days.

The projects come as a first for New Orleans with the libraries being built and designed by one firm, as opposed to having a company design it then go through the bid process again to find another company to construct it.

The change in process would normally be against state law, but an exception was made for Katrina battered parishes. That amnesty expires in July, but city leaders hope to lobby state lawmakers for a one-year extension.