Retrospect: Dunkirk library given green light

Plans for a new library in Dunkirk got the green light 30 years ago this week.

After learning $12,000 could be trimmed from the initial budget, Dunkirk Library Board president Sam Hubbard on March 24, 1987, began to finalize plans to raze what was then the current library to build a new one.

Two years earlier, a projected $167,000 was needed to construct a new building at 127 W. Washington St. But after representatives from the Muncie-based Graham, Love and Taylor Inc. architectural firm cut it down to $155,000, Hubbard, who later served as Dunkirk mayor, gave the thumbs up to get rolling on the project which was set to begin a few months later.

The former structure needed to be replaced because the basement was too small and damp for proper storage. The library was to be torn down, the basement filled and the new structure to be built in the same location.

In a cost-cutting measure, architects decided to forgo the planned brick exterior in favor of a far less expensive masonry. The new library nearly tripled the amount of usable space, from about 875 square feet to about 2,400. 

“That’s important to us, because I would rather have a reading library than a research or reference library,” Hubbard said at the time.

Dunkirk Library Board had about $72,000 on hand for the project, with another $55,000 coming from local sources. While the remaining $28,000 turned out to be a non-issue, at the time the board was a couple months away from hearing whether or not it received “challenge grant” funds from Indiana Department of Commerce.