FAYETTE — Selectmen will a hold a public hearing Monday to discuss the future of the Underwood Memorial Library.

The town received a Community Development Block Grant to conduct a feasibility study on the library. It highlights four potential options and explains the exploration of a fifth that was reviewed but determined to be not feasible.

The library, which was formerly a school, is about 1,400 square feet and sits on a lot of 0.19 acre on Route 17, diagonally across from Fayette Central School. The original library was built in 1850 and most of it was destroyed by a fire, with some of the salvaged wood used to rebuild a small school, now a library.

The results of the feasibility study will be discussed at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, at Fayette Central School on Route 17.

“The study is the first step in an important process that will allow the town to determine the future of the Underwood Memorial Library,” Town Manager Mark Robinson said. “It is an opportunity for the town to take time to methodically plan what we want to do.”

Planning is an important step, not only for the concept but for communication and financial planning, he said.

The first option is renovation and expansion of the existing building on the existing site. That option would require additional land, according to the study. The cost is estimated at $540,000.

The second option is to replace the existing building on the existing site. It, too, would require additional land; the estimate is $625,000.

Option three is the relocation of the existing building to a new site, located on school grounds. The cost is estimated at $583,000.

The fourth option is to construct a new building on the school site at an estimated cost of $631,000. The engineers and architects who conducted the study favor option four.

“In our opinion, the marginal increase in costs above the other options is offset by the freedom to design and construct a facility that can truly meet the town’s needs for years to come,” according to the executive summary.

Sewall Co. and G.L. Frost Architecture conducted the study on the library.

The fifth option was to move the library to the first floor of Starling Hall, but floor framing, limited head room and the inability to meet the 3,500-square-foot requirement were among the reasons it was deemed not feasible.

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