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By Dave Greber, Staff Writer Updated 8:21 AM Thursday, November 19, 2009

Officials from Hamilton-based Partners in Prime are proposing more than $1.4 million in improvements to the former West Chester Twp. branch of the Middletown Public Library off Cox Road in order to turn it into an activity center for the community.

The presentation by Partners in Prime Executive Director Steve Schnabl on Tuesday, Nov. 17, came following years of discussion about who would manage or operate the old library once it was vacated.

Partners in Prime says it plans to move out of a rental space further south on Cox Road it has occupied since 1999 and into the nearly 16,000-square-foot old library on or before June 1.

Trustee George Lang lauded agency officials for redeveloping one of the township’s “under-performing assets.”

“I think it’s ultimately going to be an asset to the businesses around that facility as well,” Lang said.

While the senior service organization’s plan is to operate the building as a rentable community facility — donned the “West Chester Activity Center — additional groups showed interest to do the same when preliminary plans were submitted last May.

The West Chester-based VFW Post 7696 and the American Legion — both of whom have used the old library for years — had requested to be a part of the deal, and Schnabl said Tuesday the organizations have worked out a partnership, which will not require those groups to pay a rental fee, but provide members to volunteer for Partners in Prime activities.

Plans presented Tuesday call for the township to pay for an estimated $165,000 in improvements to the library before Partners in Prime moves in, according to the presentation. Township Administrator Judi Boyko said Tuesday the township has set aside $250,000 for improvements necessary “to deliver the building to a lessee,” including replacing carpet, furnishing a room to be used by the West Chester Police Department and various road projects.

The money requested of the township will be in addition to the $100,000 it provides annually for the local Partners in Prime operation. The township has paid an annual subsidy to the senior organization for the past decade.

Tuesday’s presentation rankled Trustee Lee Wong, who expressed concern over that subsidy. When plans were first submitted earlier this year, Schnabl said the agency would decrease its local subsidy to $95,000 the first year, $75,000 the second year and $50,000 the third and additional year. Schnabl said Tuesday the amount would not likely decrease until the third or fourth year, depending on the local senior need, which is predicted to balloon during the next 10 years.

Trustee Catherine Stoker assured Wong that plans — including financial forecasts — were still changing and that what was presented this summer was never meant to be taken as final.

“We are still in negotiations,” Stoker said. “They aren’t doing a bait and switch. If anything, they are proposing a cost less than they were originally anticipating (more than $2 million).”

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