Moorestown Council Debates Tweaks to Municipal Complex Plan

As they continue to search for ways to save money on the municipal complex, council members are considering multiple options, including a shared municipal court with several nearby communities and the relocation of a sizable chunk of underused library books.

During a special meeting Friday morning, township manager Scott Carew discussed the prospect of taking some of the less popular books—volumes that are only checked out maybe once a year or less—off the floor and putting them in a “high-density storage” room. He initially suggested the possibility of installing a large automated/mechanized rack system to store the low-circulation volumes.

However, consultants from Ragan Design Group had crunched the numbers and found, using 41,000 volumes (one-third of the library’s collection) as a baseline, the mechanized rack proposal would cost about $32,000 more than keeping the books on the floor.

Once that idea was pitched, council batted around the notion of deleting some of the finished library space in Ragan’s designs and adding more (cheaper) unfinished storage space on the second floor to stash the less popular books.

Library director Joe Galbraith expressed concerns about that plan because it would eliminate people’s ability to browse.

“Public library users are browsers,” he said. “They come in and say, ‘I just read this book by this author. What else do you have that they’ve written? … Oh, I’ll just go and browse.’ You have the book stored away, you take away that component.”

Galbraith said, while a certain book may only be checked out once a year, there’s no way to measure how many people pull a book off the shelf and read it in the library.

But Carew argued what council was contemplating isn’t tantamount to cutting an essential service—it's more belt-tightening in a day and age where it's necessary.

“We’re talking about a loss of convenience for, not everybody, but only the library users,” he said. “So we’re going to spend the taxpayer’s money so people may be able to stumble upon a book?”

“That’s what a public library is,” Galbraith responded.

“We have to draw the line somewhere,” said Councilman Chris Chiacchio.

For Councilwoman Stacey Jordan, the debate isn’t simply about cost savings however. It’s also—primarily—about building a library that will segue into the world of 21st century reading, where Nooks and Kindles could one day be as common as books.

“I think the number-one driver here is the library of the future,” she said. “I’m one of those people who likes to hold a book. But I’ve got kids who go both ways (between books and tablets).”

Mayor John Button piggybacked on Jordan’s comment, stating, “I’m completely convinced people are using the library now as much as ever. But they’re using it differently.”

Council directed Rick Ragan, principal of Ragan Design Group, to explore the addition of more unfinished storage space to the library plans and return to council with more information.

Carew also mentioned his discussions with nearby municipalities about a . He said he’s confident at least four towns are very interested and would be willing to sign a memorandum of understanding so he can move forward with a plan.

He suggested council go back to its original plan of packaging the municipal court and  together. Council had to have the new council chambers double as a courtroom.

As the lead agency in a shared court system, Moorestown would not only be able to save a significant amount of money, but “We would also be able to bring some revenue in, to the point that it would offset (the cost of) putting the court with the police” in a separate building,” Carew said.

Though they did not cast a formal vote, council unanimously supported moving forward with Carew’s plan.

Council will revisit the municipal complex project at their regular meeting Monday night.

A special meeting to discuss athletic field improvements will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, just before the regular meeting, at .