AMHERST — Abandoning plans to expand and renovate the Jones Library would necessitate pursuing a backup project that would be more costly and would take longer to modernize the Amity Street building, while leaving the library without needed amenities like dedicated space for teens and room to display the Civil War tablets, according to library officials.

“Plan B is really expensively scary,” Library Director Sharon Sharry told the trustees at Tuesday’s meeting, where an update was provided on efforts to refine the plans and cut costs of expanding the library from 48,000 square feet to 63,000 square feet, before bids go out for a general contractor for the second time.

In the first round of bids, the town received one bid, for $42.7 million, that was rejected due to bring about $6.5 million over the expected cost.

“If Plan B goes into effect, it will be a piecemeal process, it will be here-and-there, whatever the town can afford over the years,” Sharry said.

The project preferred and supported by the Town Council, and voters in November 2021, would enlarge the building by removing the 1993 addition and renovating the original 1928 portion. Trustees and Finegold Alexander Architects are modifying the plans and going back through local permitting, recently getting an OK from the Planning Board. The Historical Commission reviews the proposed changes on Aug. 22.

But a petition is circulating calling on the Town Council to put an end to the project, in part due to the rising costs.

Library officials, though, expect that there will be a cost of between $5 and $6 million for just the basics of improvements, such as fixing the roof leaks and air conditioning, doing asbestos abatement in the children’s room and renovating the fire alarm system.

Trustee Farah Ameen said there can be a pivot to the alternative plan should the next bids also be too high. “If the bids don’t come in within budget ... we’ll be able to pivot the next day, and that seems to be the plan,” Ameen said.

Sharry said she is also soliciting information from Kuhn Riddle Architects, which did an estimate that overhauling the building without expanding it would cost in the $20 million range, all to be paid for by the town. It will cost about $44,000 to update the 2020 accessibility study, with updates needed due to changing energy codes and buildings codes, and Kuhn Riddle hiring another engineering film to do designs and cost estimates again. There are also likely to be higher costs due to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Should the work be done in stages, Ameen said library operations would have to be relocated multiple times, rather than just once.

Trustees President Austin Sarat said Plan B means different things to different people, but trustees are committed to spending $1.8 million on roof work and HVAC system replacement.

Sharry said there is urgency to begin work. “The building is crumbling around us,” she said. She explained that the larger elevator closed a week ago with water pouring alongside it, there are constant leaks in the special collections, where tarps are positioned to protect the valuable historic resources, though the library recently lost to water damage some mystery books in a collection stored elsewhere in the library

Throughout this summer, too, the air conditioning system has not been functioning properly. “It’s very soupy in the building now,” Sharry said.

Ameen said she worries that, while staff is cheerful to patrons and, the unsettled feeling around the project is not good for morale.

Lee Edwards, a trustee who has co-chaired the capital campaign, said the current library has insufficient programming space, in its current configuration special collections and the Burnett Gallery are ill served, there is no room for the Civil War tablets, the space is limited for the English Language Learners and teens have no place to call their own, “which I think is disgraceful.”

“We need to renovate and expand,” she said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.