SANDPOINT — A planned expansion of the Sandpoint Library has been approved by the East Bonner County Library District's board.

The expansion would add a $2.5 million, 4,456‑square‑foot addition on the library's northwest corner, EBCL Director Vanessa Velez said Tuesday.

“The expansion idea began a couple of years ago when we invited an architect on a walkthrough to see how we could gain meeting and study space for patrons and workspace for staff,” Velez told the Daily Bee.

The first floor of the two‑story addition — the second expansion of the Sandpoint Library since it opened in 2000 — was originally part of the 2017 expansion but was dropped from the project to trim costs.

Velez said the library's architect proposed going up another story as a more cost‑efficient way to maximize the library’s space options while meeting the goals behind the expansion.

“The library is looking forward to the opportunity to provide more free gathering, learning and working spaces for our community,” she said.

The first floor of the expansion will consist of a large meeting room and smaller café‑style meeting spaces, potentially including books and other items for sale from the Friends of the Library. The second floor will expand the Lifelong Learning Center and provide more private study and tutoring rooms, in addition to a multimedia room, a small‑group study space and staff offices.

“This addition will also allow the library to increase the size of critical staff workspaces, particularly the paging room, which has been crowded and over capacity for several years,” Velez said.

The district's 2017 expansion spruced up the children's area, added a teen lounge and makerspace area, and added additional tutoring rooms and larger community meeting rooms and study areas. It also allowed for a virtual reality room and expanded young adult and large‑print book collection space.

Although library officials anticipate minimal disruption to district patrons during construction, a project “of this scale will always be noticeable,” Velez said. The library director said officials and staff are committed to reducing disturbances and inconveniences as much as possible, as well as sharing project updates with the community.

EBCLD officials are waiting for their architect to complete bid documents, with the goal of going out to bid in late winter or early spring.

“Theoretically, we could end up breaking ground as soon as late spring (if water and soil conditions allow), but we won’t know until we receive bids,” Velez said.

While there is an off‑chance that bids come in higher than anticipated, Velez said she is hopeful that won’t be the case. The library director said the district has been working toward the expansion for the past several years and has the estimated $2.5 million needed for the project in a dedicated building fund that allows for new construction.

In accordance with Idaho code, project construction is not being funded by property tax dollars. Instead, Velez said funding for the expansion is derived primarily from donations and partially from sales‑tax revenue received from Bonner County.

The expansion project is the second by the library district, with the 2017 project adding a two‑story addition to the library’s southeast end and a one‑story addition to the northwest end. In total, the expansion added roughly 7,900 square feet to the original library built in 2000 following a move from the historic building in the downtown core that now houses MickDuff’s Brewing Company.