Questions about soil contamination at the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library should have answers within the next 10 days or so.

Library Director Agnes Ho said two soil samples have been taken to determine if the library site is contaminated by petroleum products. The property previously was occupied by a gas station, and purchased in 1966 from the station owner to build the library.

“If the soil is contaminated with gasoline or oil, we might be able to get a federal grant that can apply to cleaning it up,” Ho said.

The library is on the verge a major expansion financed by a $2.6 million bond issue approved by voters last year.

“This is the first I’ve heard about (a soil contamination) problem,” George Graham, chairman of the Lenoir County Board of Commissioners, said. “If the land was purchased without doing the necessary inspections, we might be responsible for it. It’s probably our land – or the library’s land. I’m not really aware of the problem.”

Another problem that has arisen during the construction planning stage is the need to replace the library’s heating and cooling system, but that won’t derail the expansion, Graham said.

The county board is expected to approve $120,000 – half the cost to replace the system – at its Feb. 6 meeting. The little bank has offered to donate the other half of the $240,000 cost.

“Now is the time to do it,” Graham said. “I think it will be pretty difficult for the board to vote against it.”

The library’s heating and cooling system was installed 22 years ago. Ho said it has become inefficient and expensive to operate. Some areas of the building are very warm while other rooms are too cool to be comfortable. The system operates on both natural gas and electricity. The library spends $50,000 annually for utilities. A new system would lessen energy costs since it would be 25 percent more efficient, Ho said.

Graham believes board should look first at the bond money for the new air handling system, but that is a point of contention for Ho.

“I don’t think we should take bond referendum money to pay for it,” Ho said, adding that voters approved the bond to pay for construction, furnishing and architectural service fees.

The county owns the library building. Several members of the Friends of the Library have said necessities such as the air handling system should be the county’s responsibility.

The alternative to replacing the system now would be to pay considerably more in five years, which engineers say is its remaining useful lifetime.

“We may have to reset, refocus, rework the financing of it,” Graham said. “When you do construction, you always have cost overruns. You have to work it and make it happen. Money has to come from here and money has to come from there.”

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