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Metro Council approves mayor's $2.7M proposal to finance downtown library repairs

5 years 4 weeks 1 day ago Wednesday, February 27 2019 Feb 27, 2019 February 27, 2019 5:30 PM February 27, 2019 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - The Metro Council has approved a nearly $3 million plan to circumvent a legal quagmire in order to fix the downtown library.

The council voted Wednesday in favor of Mayor Sharon Weston Broome's plan to "temporarily" spend roughly $2.7 million to move on with repairs for the unfinished building in downtown Baton Rouge.

The edifice has been placed on rented jacks since last April, when a major failure caused a crack in the structure. Little progress has been made in the 10 months since due to a blame game between engineers, designers and the city-parish over who would foot the bill for the repairs.

The financing approved this week is roughly $1 million more than the original $1.9 million estimate given in September. The mayor cited what is likely to be a lengthy legal battle last week when she first announced the plan last week.

“...This type of litigation could take between two and five years to complete. During this period of time, the library would remain vacant and unfinished. Not only would the building become an eyesore in the center of Downtown Baton Rouge, but it could become compromised to the point that significant additional repair work would be required,” the mayor said.

There is currently no announcement on when work will resume at the library.

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