Sometimes I get an idea, and at first blush it seems like a world beater. Fortunately, I'm a bit of a procrastinator, so I usually don't act on these brilliant insights immediately. Usually, over the next few days, I'll share this idea with friends or colleagues, and they gently (or sometimes not so gently) point out the the things I've overlooked, or misunderstood, and suddenly my amazing insight is just road kill, better left by the side of the road.

That's the way it goes. For every really good idea, there are countless others that are interesting, maybe even exciting, but that just don't hold up to close scrutiny. Such is the case with the suggestion now being floated in various corners of Sag Harbor that the former Methodist Church building be somehow purchased with Community Preservation Fund (CPF) monies and then used by the John Jermain Memorial Library in some way to relieve that facility's chronic shortage of space.

The whole concept seems amazingly serendipitous at first glance. The church is around the corner from the library. The church is empty and for sale. The library needs space and is planning on adding space in the near future. The church should be preserved. The CPF was established, in part to preserve historic structures. The Library needs to raise money through a bond issue in order to expand, and the voters have been reluctant to approve such an issue, but the CPF has money; that could be used to buy the church without raising taxes. The library is currently housed in an historic building. The church is also an historic building. It's perfect!

Or is it?

As it turns out, there are a few problems with this plan, the biggest being that while CPF money can be used to preserve historic structures, that is the limit of what it can be used for with regard to buildings. It cannot, say, be used to adapt historic structures to make them suitable for new uses. Who says so? Mary Wilson, Community Preservation Manager for Southampton Town says so.

Then there is the problem of the church's suitability for use as a library. Not so suitable as it turns out. The church is in serious disrepair, which is why the Methodist congregation had to leave...and they were just looking at the cost of repairing the existing structure. The library, however, would be looking at a change of use, which would mean not just repairs, but also bringing the building up to current code standards for public spaces. This would be hugely expensive, more expensive, in fact then just building a new building on the piece of property that the library owns down by Mashashimuet Park. Who says this would be more expensive? The library's architect for one. The library's previous architect and construction manager said the same thing. Rehabilitation and restoration of historic structures for use by the public is always more expensive than new construction.

Those are two very major issues. Other issues include the fact that the church is a wood-frame structure which raises fire-safety concerns, as well as concerns about the ability of the building's support structure to bear the weight of the library's book stacks. Oh, and parking. The current library has none, which is a problem. The church has a few parking spaces, but not nearly enough to address the library's parking issues. Finally, it should be pointed out that the church's interior configuration is very unique, spread over several levels that intersect in unusual ways -- ways which are not at all consistent with the needs of a library.

So, what we have is a lovely idea, which just doesn't hold up to scrutiny. And, the truth is, it really didn't take that much scrutiny to find some serious problems with this idea. More in-depth analysis will undoubtedly turn up more problems, but why bother? There are already enough serious issues to relegate this idea to the good-idea-gone-bad scrap pile. Our library provides many important services to the community. Its need for expanded facilities is serious and well-documented. Those charged with delivering library services to the community cannot afford the time or the expense of pursuing this idea any further. Many of us wish it would have been workable, but it's not. Time to move on.