Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280422
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

ARCHITECTS TO DESIGN NEW BEDFORD LIBRARY

Steve Preston, assistant outreach coordinator for the public library, said The Design Collaborative company will need about four months to complete the plan for a building of at least 15,000 square feet.

The building will go on the same 2.362 acres of land where the existing, cramped library facilities sit on Bridge Street.

Earlier this month, company representatives interviewed members of the library staff, area garden clubs, historical society, Mainstreet Inc., the genealogical society and school library staff about the plans, according to a news release from the library.

As part of the planning process, engineers will prepare detailed drawings of the two existing buildings on the library property.

It was questions about those two buildings - the library and the historic "Wharton Building" - that slowed down the planning process for a new library in the past year.

Some residents had expressed concerns about the possibility that the Wharton building would be torn down.

That got officials looking at other sites.

But, in January, City Council agreed that a new library should go on the Bridge Street land regardless of the political heat that might draw.

The consultant's master plan could end up leaving the Wharton building or the library standing, however, and constructing a whole new building on leftover land, Preston said.

"They will look at all the possibilities," Preston said.