The Village of Baxter Estates has issued a permit for the demolition of the two homes on the site of the new library parking lot. Readers will recall that the State Education Department recently declined jurisdiction over the property, and consequently jurisdiction fell to the village.

Plans for the actual construction of the new lot, however, will be postponed until the renovations at the library are completed. It's expected that the construction work for the renovations will begin in August of 1999 and take approximately one year to complete.

During that year, the new parking lot site will be used as a construction staging area for the renovation work, pending approval from the Village of Baxter Estates. Library Director Nancy Curtin commented, "There's no use in installing a brand new parking lot while all kinds of other construction is going on."

When asked why the library didn't wait to demolish the homes at a time closer to August '99, when the renovation work is expected to commence, Ms. Curtin replied that the board wanted to move forward with the accessory parking lot project. In addition, she noted that the library has a long standing contract with the demolition experts, which was signed back in April. "There's already been a significant delay."

Ms. Curtin also pointed out that it will take time to apply to and obtain approval from the village for the temporary permit to use the site as a staging area.

Once the renovation work is completed, the accessory parking lot will be constructed.

At press time, the Port News learned that the Village of Baxter Estates has suggested to the library that it consider relocating Library Drive to the east of the Baker houses property so that the library's parking lot will be one contiguous whole.