John Jermain Memorial Library Passes Another Key Hurdle in Effort To Replace Heating System

For nearly eight months, representatives of the John Jermain Memorial Library have made the rounds before Sag Harbor Village’s review boards, seeking approval to place a new heating system in a recessed area along the building’s north wall.

That odyssey is apparently coming to an end — and not a minute too soon, as the library’s existing open-loop geothermal heating and cooling system has broken down once again.

Since January, the library has been forced to rely on a makeshift system of electric space heaters that blow hot air into its system of vents. “We were hoping we’d be able to have our system limp along a little longer to help us get through the process,” said library director Kelly Harris, “but that wasn’t to be.”

This week, the library cleared another hurdle when the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review signed off on the design, which will screen the new heating system, an air source heat pump chiller, behind a 6-foot-tall fence that will be lined with soundproofing material. Additional screening will be provided by a landscaping plan designed by Ed Hollander.

When David Harvey, the ARB’s architectural consultant, asked if the system could be recessed deeper into the ground, Tiffany Scarlato, the library’s attorney, pointed out that the library had already obtained a variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals for that. “It’s a tough location,” she said, “but at this point the library doesn’t have any heating system.”

When Harvey pressed further, saying, “I guess their answer is ‘no,’ they’d rather just go with the height,” Scarlato was quick to respond, “It’s not that our answer is ‘no,’ — it’s that the engineers don’t believe the system will work adequately not having enough air flow.”

The library is waiting for the final okay from the Planning Board, which it expects to receive when that board meets on Tuesday, February 25.

When the library undertook a major renovation project more than a decade ago, it installed a geothermal heating system. “They were all the rage,” Harris said, “and when geothermal works, it’s an amazing energy-efficient system.”

The problem is, the system did not work, with bio-film, a sludge-like material, clogging it almost from day one. Rather than continue costly, and futile, efforts to keep it operating efficiently, the library board decided a year ago to replace the system with a more conventional but efficient heating system.

“Our quote is probably a little out of date, but this is a million-dollar project,” Harris said, adding, “We’d rather spend a million dollars on more exciting things. But, on the other hand, we have nothing if we don’t have a properly functioning HVAC system.”

She said former boards and former Director Catherine Creedon had built up a reserve fund that will cover the cost of the project instead of requiring the library to seek taxpayer approval to issue a bond borrowing money for the work.

Harris told members of the Planning Board at a June 2024 hearing that the library had done its “due diligence” and said she did not object to the length of time it has taken the various boards to review the application, given that the library is in the village historic district.

“We respect that the Planning Board, ZBA, and the Board of Historic Preservation and Architectural Review all had to do their due diligence,” she said. “They really needed to do what they needed to do.”