Tom Dalton
SALEM —
The Salem State College library is coming down, but not with a bang.
“There will be no explosions,” said Robert O’Leary, vice president of Lee Kennedy Co. of Quincy, the construction management firm that will oversee the demolition.
During a neighborhood meeting Monday night, O’Leary and state officials laid out the demolition plans for the library on Lafayette Street that has been closed since 2007.
“It’s all going to be taken down by basically cutting and dismantling as we go,” O’Leary said.
That news seemed to ease concerns of local residents, some of whom live right across the street from the large, four-story building.
“The fact there’s no blasting, we’re certainly glad to hear that,” neighbor Lou Johnson said.
Workers will begin removing interior asbestos next week, with demolition scheduled to start in late September. The rear of the building will be taken down first.
The old library is being demolished in phases, officials said, to allow for construction on the new library to begin by the end of this year. The new library will be erected on Salem State’s main campus right behind the current facility.
In addition to the library, the facility will include a “learning commons” housing a variety of student services, including academic advising, a writing center and services for students with disabilities.
The budget for the combined demolition-construction project is $73.5 million.
Work is scheduled to be completed in two years, with the new library opening in the fall of 2012.
The state plans to do a pre-demolition survey of homes near the site and place air-quality monitors in the area to detect any problems.
Residents asked questions about risks from the removal of asbestos and other potentially hazardous materials from the building. They also discussed routes that trucks will take to haul hazardous materials from the site to landfills in Ohio and other states.
Residents have been staring at an eyesore for nearly three years, ever since the library was shuttered in the fall of 2007 when concerns arose about its structural stability. The exterior of the building is surrounded by scaffolding, and the overgrown site is enclosed by a security fence.
The college opened an interim library on its central campus in the same building that houses the Bertolon School of Business.
Although plans are tentative and years away, college officials said that once the old library site is cleared, they are considering building science labs there.
