Why is the Sequoya Branch Library closed for an entire month just so it can move around the corner to a larger space? Good question.
"Here's the deal," says Barb Dimick, Madison's straight-talking library director. The city agreed to vacate its current, 12,000-square-foot space at Midvale and Tokay by Oct. 1. But because, as Dimick puts it, "the whole damn city process is slow," the Common Council did not seal the deal to build the new, 20,000-square-foot space until May 1. And since the work required six months, the new space won't be done until Nov. 2.
The library blew its deadline and needed an extension; it closed on Oct. 4 and completed the move-out last Friday. Its 120,000 volumes are in storage until the new space is ready.
"I hate having our library closed down," says Dimick, noting that Sequoya circulates more materials than any branch library in the seven-county South Central Library System. She hopes the new Sequoya will open the first week of November. But first, "we have to get an occupancy permit" from, you guessed it, the city. Good luck with that.
