Council to hear library contract

A contract to allow the Daniel Boone Regional Library to build a branch north of the Boone County Fairgrounds will be on the Columbia City Council’s agenda Monday.

Developer Tom Atkins donated the tract in 2002 to Columbia and Boone County. Six to 10 acres of the land have been the library’s preferred location for a new northern branch.

The contract, which would give the library an option to obtain the land until 2012, will need approval by the City Council and the Boone County Commission.

A roadblock to obtain-

ing the land has been Waco Road, which would need to be extended to provide access to the land. The contract specifies that the library would pay $165,000 toward the extension of Waco Road. The land would be a donation from Boone ­County and the city of Columbia.

An extension of the road could cost from $2.8 million to $5.2 million, depending on the design chosen, according to preliminary estimates pro­vided by the Public Works Department. Mayor Darwin Hindman said extending Waco Road is already in Columbia’s future.

“It’s been a part of our master plan,” Hindman said. “It’s just a question of when we build and finance it.”

Hindman predicted the ­council will approve the contracts.

“It’s forward-thinking,” Hindman said. “We’re often charged with being behind development, and now we have a chance to get ahead of it. It’s important to build out infrastructure as we can finance it.”

The day after the council votes, voters in the Boone County Library District will be asked to approve a 21-cent increase to the district’s property tax to finance the construction and operation of northern and southern branch libraries.