Acting Mayor Schaer offers library renovation plan

First they were going to close it. Then they decided to save it. Now, by some miracle, they want to rehabilitate it.

Indeed, it's hard to imagine a public institution in Passaic County whose fortunes have swung more dramatically in the past 18 months than the Reid Memorial Library in Passaic.

In February last year, the city's library board of trustees announced that it would be closing the 104-year-old library because of the exorbitant costs it would take to replace the building's roof and make it fully accessible to the disabled. Fortunately, that plan was scrapped when some discrepancies in the cost estimates were revealed and especially after an outcry from Passaic residents. Some who were most vocal in their protest were patrons whose usage of the Reid's books and stacks dated back generations.

"My grandparents came to this country 90 years ago. The Reid Memorial helped them become Americans," said Barbara Jean Sikora, one of many who came forward to voice support for keeping the Reid, one of the city's architectural jewels, open for future generations to enjoy.

Now, if acting Mayor Gary Schaer's renovation plan is approved by the City Council and the public, the Reid will be renovated, and utilized, for decades to come.

Schaer, who once supported the idea of closing the Reid, seems now to have become its greatest champion. He is particularly taken with the idea of making it fully accessible to the disabled. His proposed $614,000 refurbishment -- which would be funded largely through federal Community Development Block Grant money -- would include the construction of a handicapped accessible ramp, the installation of an elevator to the second floor, and upgrades in flooring and lighting.

As it has since its early days, the Reid continues to serve a vibrant immigrant population.

The majority of families who live near the Reid these days are Latino, and most of them get by on modest incomes. For the children of these families, the Reid is a lifeline, a place to discover other worlds, a gateway to science, fantasy and the arts.

The Passaic Library Board, which generally supports the renovation, will hold a public meeting at 2:30 p.m. on July 13 to discuss the merits of the plan. The proposal must meet council approval since the targeted monies would be diverted from planned road repairs.

If the Reid renovation proceeds as it should and accomplishes all it hopes, then Passaic and its children will be truly better served, and a once-doomed city icon would have a fairy tale ending worthy of the Brothers Grimm.