Monmouth Beach Rebuilds Its Library

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MONMOUTH BEACH – Mayor Sue Howard said Tuesday that work to restore the borough’s library building, which has been vacant since Sandy, could start within the “next four weeks.”
The borough has selected a contractor to raise the building as the first part of the restoration and now the process of getting permits has begun, she said.
Howard said she could not give an estimate on the time when the library would be ready for use. “These things always take longer than you’d like,“ she said.
The new library will be smaller than the one before Sandy. Howard said half the building will be used for the borough’s offices, which were in the east side of the Borough Hall before Sandy and now have been moved to what the Mayor call the “Great Room” there.
The space in the library building will be increased by the addition of a 10-foot extension on the Willow Avenue side of the structure, she said.
“There will be plenty of room,” for the library in that space Howard said, since libraries have changed and do not need the same amount of space. “It will be a very fine library,” Howard said.
She said the borough would finance the work through $300,000 in bonds.
Howard said the Great Room in Borough Hall would be restored to its original use as a meeting room. Since Sandy, a corner of the great room has served as the town’s library, with a limited amount because it was close to her home in the town.
Borough residents still had the use of the Eastern Branch of the Monmouth County Library after Sandy but that is located on Route 35 in Shrewsbury and is about a 20-minute drive.
And the Oceanic Free Library in Rumson offered both Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright residents free use of the library after Sandy wrecked the two town’s libraries.
Sea Bright has set a July 6 opening for its temporary library that will be located in the First United Methodist Church at 1104 Ocean Avenue. The library will be moved to permanent quarters when the town’s planned community center is constructed.
Joan Walsh, the former director of the town’s library, who is helping in setting up its new location, said Wednesday that they are waiting for Comcast to install the telephone connection that is needed for the library’s computer system.
Walsh said that there are bookcases in place; new books that come from the Monmouth County Library and furniture were donated by John Sands.
Both the Monmouth Beach and Sea Bright libraries have a benefactor in common – Jay Ross of Monmouth Beach, who opened the Monmouth Sailing Center in 1963.
Walsh said Ross financed the first library in Sea Bright called the JW Ross Cultural Center. Ross also funded a new wing on the Monmouth Beach library.
– By Liz Sheehan