Holmdel Library Within Week Of Opening

HOLMDEL, NJ - The new $1.7 million library - under construction at Bell Works - should be ready for new patrons within a week, Mayor Gregory Buontempo estimated.

The library, which previously was scheduled to open just before Thanksgiving, was delayed for minor fixes. The carpeting was custom and had to be installed before the custom furniture could come in. The current cramped township library will shut its doors tomorrow so staff can begin moving all the books over.

"We wanted this to be different and unique," the mayor said. "It was not one thing," he said in explaining the two-week opening delay.

Barring an unforeseen delays, the new library will open for business in a week, the mayor said. To that end, the Township Committee has been doing what it must administratively to make sure the library project is on track. The committee on Nov. 28 introduced a measure to appropriate $100,000, primarily to serve as a down payment for the bonds or bond anticipation notes officials plan to issue to support the construction.

A public hearing on the bond measure is scheduled for Dec. 12.

After negotiating with Bell Works developer, Holmdel made the decision earlier this year to move the township library out of its cramped, 3,000-square-foot space in the basement of town hall to an airy 18,000-square-foot new home at Bell Works, which will be loaded with new technology and online resources.

The new library is located inside Bell Works; patrons park in the front parking lot and walk in the main entrance to access it, just passed the atrium. The library will provide free WiFi and computer work stations. The township currently is building a sidewalk on Crawfords Corner Road to connect the high school, about a mile away, to Bell Works.

The library will boast several private "break-out rooms," which will feature drop-down screens, computers and projectors to help people collaborate on projects. Classroom space also is provided and it is the mayor's hope that Holmdel Schools Superintendent Robert McGarry will bring science and math classes over from the high school for lectures inside the library, where they will meet and talk with employees from Bell Works technology companies.

A Montessori school is planned for a parcel next to the library, also inside the atrium, Buontempo has said. The Montessori school will serve the children of employees at Bell Works as well as others in the area.

Bell Works now has just under 1,000 employees at the site but that number could double once software company iCIMS moves on campus later this year, according to the mayor.

The library was built as part of a $1.7 million deal between Holmdel and Bell Works owner and Somerset Development. Holmdel pushed for the developer to provide library space and Somerset provided $1 million toward the project. The remaining money was cobbled together by the Holmdel Library Foundation via fundraising and private donations from exiting Bell Works tenants.

According to the bond ordinance legal notice, the township is counting on $95,000 in grant funding.

The library also will seek to educate visitors about the rich history of Holmdel's Bell Labs site, the 1960s-era AT&T technology behemoth, where soft- and hard-ware developed that eventually led to the creation of the cell phone, fiber optics and military radar, officials said.

Some of the new library highlights:

• Free, on-site access to digital research and reference tools such as: Ancestry.com, Morningstar Investment Research Center, EBSCOhost journals, Hoover's Online, Value Line, Small Business Reference Center, JSTOR Academic Journals and Weiss Insurance Ratings.
• An extensive selection of subscription-based resources for law, medicine, arts, entertainment, employment, grants and politics.
• Access to more than 100 magazines, both current editions and archives.
• Comfortable, welcoming lounge areas with access to charging stations.
• A well-curated, relevant print collection with a dedicated children's and teen wing.

A view of the library's main room. The circulation desk is in red. Photograph by Carly Baldwin/Patch Staff.