If everyone who said they forgot to vote on the Amherst Public Library’s $11 million, 24,000-square-foot addition during February’s special election had cast “yes’’ ballots, there’d be no need for another campaign.

Or at least that is what library officials say they are hearing.

“If we counted all of those people who told us that, the issue would have passed without any problem,” Library Director Robin Wood said Thursday, a day after library officials kicked off a two-month campaign to get out the vote Nov. 2 when a 1.16-mill, 28-year bond issue goes before voters again.

More photos below.

“The goal this time around is to make sure we educate as many people as we can about the importance of getting them out to vote and getting absentee ballots into voters’ hands in plenty of time,” Wood said. “We can’t wait till the last minute to do our campaigning.”

Toward that end, the library kicked off its second bond issue campaign with a rally Wednesday night at Sandstone Village that was attended by about 40 people.

“We’re already organized, but we had some new people come in who want to come and help out,” Wood said. “We’re very excited about that.”

The issue was rejected by a 933-to-809 vote in February, which followed what officials acknowledged was a very compressed post-Christmas season campaign. The 1.16-mill bond issue on the November ballot is expected to cost $2.96 a month for residents of homes valued at $100,000.

The library also is funded by an existing operating levy that costs $1.29 a month for owners of properties valued at $100,000. The operating levy provides about $300,000, or 30 percent, of the library’s annual budget, the remainder of which comes from state funds.

The proposed expansion would more than double the size of the current 14,000-square-foot facility on Spring Street.

Keeping up with changing demands and tastes is key for the library, one of the last in Lorain County to be modernized, according to its director.

“We’re one of the few that has not renovated in the past 20 years,” Wood said as she ticked off expansions or new buildings for libraries in Vermilion, Lorain, Oberlin, Avon Lake and Elyria.

Despite being among the county’s smaller libraries in square footage, the Amherst system serves a district that trails only Lorain and Elyria in size, and encompasses Amherst and Brownhelm townships and portions of the Firelands school district.

With more than 85,000 books, DVDs, books-on-tape and other materials in its collections, the library needs more shelf space, along with more meeting and community rooms.

“We don’t have a lot of quiet, comfortable spaces for studying, relaxing and reading,” she said.

A computer training lab is also in the plans. The need for such a facility was dramatically demonstrated when 250 people turned out in 2009 for a week’s worth of computer classes held in a bus dispatched by the state library system.

Built in 1906, the library was updated once — in 1976.

“We were built just to check out books,” Wood said. “We weren’t designed for the needs of a modern community. Today, libraries do so much more. We’re staying positive.

“The issue is going to pass this time,” she said.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

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