Library Mulls Options For 114 Thompson Street

When compared to its neighbor in , the is woefully short on acreage. That’s why, when the property at 114 Thompson Street next door came up for sale a few years ago, the library snatched it up.

Now, the library board is deciding what's the best use for a piece of property that might prove tricky and expensive to build on, especially in tough economic times and .

“There’s no strong idea of what to do with it,” Library Director Robert Goykin said in a phone interview with Patch.

Recently, the library board discussed meeting with planners to help them come up with ideas. Minutes from the last public board meeting have dates of Aug. 13 or 14 being considered to talk with potential consultants about planning. If those dates don't work out they will shoot for the next board meeting on Aug. 27.

Either way, the board is looking for advice. Goykin insists that nothing will be done without first getting the community’s input, other than maybe flattening the existing structure, which was condemned. A sign on the front door says that the property was deemed unsafe for human occupation on July 11, 2008.

“As far as doing anything else with the property I’m sure there will be some public discussion first,” he said.

The first thought might be to turn it into parking, considering the severe shortage of free parking in town, especially spaces available near the library. Goykin said that might not be the best use, considering the limited number of spaces they can squeeze out of the property, not to mention the difficulty and the expense of building on the steep incline of Thompson Street.

The maximum would be 10 to 12 additional spaces, much of which the director said would be taken up by people who didn’t want to pay for the village’s metered parking. It may be possible to get more spaces in there if the engineers can get around a few problems.

One is water drainage. Water runs down Thompson Street and onto East Main Street, eventually ending up in the Long Island Sound. So a vacant parking lot poses its own drainage problems.

And if they wanted to get even more spaces out of the property and link it to the existing parking lot adjacent to the main library building it would be a feat of construction that most likely would be very expensive.

“Considering the hill, you’d have to do something creative to get more spaces there,” Goykin said.

Another problem the board faces is the fact that the existing house’s foundation acts as a retaining wall to the property next door.

“How are you going to hold up the hill and drainage?” he said.

Village code would force the library to resolve those problems when they convert it into something new, whether it’s parking or additional space. And making use of the property in its current state is not an option since it was condemned a couple of years ago.

The library has always been interested in its neighbor’s property.

“The library looked into purchasing it before I got here but the price was too high,” said Goykin. “The library has virtually no property other than the foot print of the building.”

Looking up the hill to expand was a natural choice. Over the years, the house degraded and eventually fell into disrepair and foreclosure. The library asked Goykin to look into it when the bank put the property up for sale. He said it was available for a good price, half of what it was the year before when they first looked into it. Even though the board didn’t have a plan for the property yet, they couldn’t pass it up.

“It was an offer they could not refuse,” said Goykin who thinks the library got a good deal.

According to Zillow.com, the house was purchased for $273,000 in March 2010 and estimates the value of the home at $393,390. The property measures .12 acres and the home was originally built in 1860.

Engineers who looked at the house for the library say it was condemned for good reason, with structural problems even in the foundation.

Before the library bought it, the property was what Goykin described as a “crime site” with people illegally living in the shed in the backyard. The library has since cleared the shed out and dismantled it.

For now though, Goykin said that the board is just talking, weighing options and meeting with consultants. With the LIPA power plant and state tax cap issues, the board is uncertain how much they can invest in the property right now.

“I think they’re going to have to get a sense of what’s the best thing,” he said.

What do you think the library should do with 114 Thompson Street? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.