Cold Spring Council Vote Expected To Kickstart Library Fundraising

(KNSI) – Cold Spring City Council made two votes that will affect the first chapter of its new library at Wednesday’s meeting.

It decided against completing a Phase II environmental study on a sliver of adjoining land to the spot picked out for the building. Burlington Northern Santa Fe owns the property behind Teal’s Market.

The company said the evaluation was a requirement to even consider selling it to the city. Cold Spring Administrator Kris Dockendorf explains to KNSI News why the council is holding off. “Even once we did it, there was no guarantee they would still sell us the property. So, we discussed that, and the city council decided not to do the environmental study. We’re hoping to get the land some other way, and if we can’t, we will make do without it.”

BNSF had split the lot and sold the first portion years ago to help build the ROCORI Trail. Dockendorf says city staff does not know if an environmental study was done on that land or if its results would apply to the leftover section.

The second vote was regarding the library’s fundraising committee. The council is trying to help the group kickstart its efforts. Dockendorf says it is important to show people a real vision is in place for the building.

“We wanted to be able to give them a big sign to put on the property that says ‘coming soon,’ and also a picture of a potential building that they can use in their brochures and things like that. So, we hired an architect firm to put that rendering together for us.”

Dockendorf says not every detail has been hammered out. No final cost estimate is available at this time.

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