Kevin Riordan: Time to turn page at Haddonfield's library

The 91-year-old Haddonfield Public Library - that Monticelloesque little edifice at Haddon Avenue and Tanner Street - is like the eccentric old couple next door.

They're sometimes charming, sometimes not, but we get along with them because we value civility and respect age.

Perhaps that's why questions of renovating or replacing the cramped, quirky, leaky library have been genteelly debated, and debated again, for decades in this most comfortable of Camden County communities.

Since 2008 a citizens committee has examined 13 sites for a new library and assessed the current location for an updated, expanded facility.

About $700,000 has been privately pledged (this is Haddonfield, after all) toward what is hoped will be a $5.3 million construction cost.

While the discussions drag on, storm water periodically floods the children's section in the basement. Narrow aisles, an abundance of stairs, and the lack of an elevator limit use by patrons with strollers or in wheelchairs.

Arguably loved more by people who rarely use it, the library is a functionally obsolete, deteriorating landmark. In more ways than one.

"It's been a long journey," observes Mayor Tish Colombi.

Noting that the borough hopes to put a proposal before the voters next year, she adds, "We just need to make a decision."

David J. Hunter has made up his mind: A public parking lot on Allen Avenue - the only new site deemed "worthy of consideration" by the citizens committee - is perfect.

The full-page advertisements he's placed in his What's On publications, including a clip-and-mail petition, inspire me to give him a call.

"The current site has been the focus for decades, probably because that's where the library is," Hunter says. "Here's a fresh idea."

I'm standing with him in the Allen Avenue parking area, which is in a direct sight line with the "Haddie" dinosaur sculpture at Kings Highway. Thus a new library could be visible from the borough's action-packed main street as well as from its busy PATCO station.

Hunter's enthusiasm is as engaging as his Aussie accent as he makes his case.

Higher costs? Fund-raising for a new building is surely easier than for a renovation.

Parking spaces, a commodity sometimes tough to come by in the center of town? Not to worry: Look at the capacity of the PATCO lot.

Hunter is worried, however, that Haddonfield seems overly attached to the current library. The borough commissioned an architectural study that produced various renderings to renovate but not replace the facility.

I put the question to the mayor.

"David has a good eye, and he's always had an interest in the Allen Avenue site," says Colombi, who hasn't served as mayor since 2001 and borough commissioner since 1985 because she lacks diplomacy.

Or shrewdness; Colombi goes on to wonder aloud whether interested parties (other than the borough) might find a way to underwrite the cost of an architectural study of an Allen Avenue library.

To help defray construction costs, the mayor notes, the borough could sell the existing library. A deed provision restricting the property to a library or a similar use "probably" could be resolved.

"It's absurd to keep coming back to this issue," Colombi says. "There needs to be a resolution."

It can't come soon enough for library director Susan Briant, who says the library "needs to come into the 21st century, with a building that can provide 21st-century services."

Acknowledging that cost is certainly a serious consideration, she adds, "I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's clear to me, as a professional, that a new building is an infinitely better choice."

I second that.

With all due respect to the semi-grand old library, Allen Avenue is a great place for the new library the community deserves.