Between June and August, the Troy Public Library’s downtown branch had 34 unplanned closures. Children’s programs, summer reading, and auxiliary services were all canceled for large chunks of the summer because the building was simply too hot.
Built in 1897, the branch was one of the last public libraries in the state without air conditioning. Troy Library Executive Director Tim Furgal says while the closures were happening during the especially hot 2025 summer, he and the library’s board looked into industrial cooling solutions. But he said that would have cost $50,000 a day before factoring in the expense to run a generator and the increased load of electricity.
“Being able to keep our doors open and allow people the ability to walk into a place and to be able to cool off and not need to spend any money, is part of the value of the library,” Furgal said. “It's one of the last places in a community where you can just walk in and no one expects you to buy anything, to purchase anything, and especially during the summer months, to be able to provide and act as a cooling station to the community. I think will be a really great service.”
So, instead of an industrial cooling solution, library leaders made plans for the installation of an entirely new HVAC system.
In September, voters in the city supported a 30% tax levy increase for the library, which, in part, helped pay for the new system. For a house assessed at $150,000, homeowners are expected to pay $170.07 in library taxes this year. The same household would have paid $132.19 in 2025. The 2024 budget totaled more than $1.84 million, a 15.2% increase year-over-year.
“I'm just so grateful to the voters in Troy that money, in addition to setting aside the first savings for the building for expenses related to construction projects our Capital Improvement Fund, we did account for the increased spending with the air conditioning unit,” Furgal said. “So, we should be balanced in that regard.”
Furgal says the newly completed $1.6 million HVAC project will also allow the library to better care for its archive, though a climate-controlled archive is far off.
In addition to the tax levy increase, several revenue streams helped pay for the renovations. Furgal said these funding sources include money from the state’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative, a separate state library construction grant, and the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
“The Troy Library, because of the need of the community, we're what they call a 9010-matching library,” Furgal said. “So, we only have to pay 10% of the funds for a public match. So, for the cost of this $1.6 million cooling project, the total cost to the taxpayers is roughly $31,000.”
Troy’s Lansingburgh branch also doesn’t have central air. But, because the building is a different style than the main branch, its windows can accommodate air conditioning units.
The nearly 200-year-old library system serves the greater city of Troy and neighboring municipalities. The main location recently underwent a roof renovation, and the Lansingburgh branch is being renovated after severe water damage in 2023. Furgal says another state library construction grant is being used to replace the roof over the children’s room, which was impacted by the flood.
“I also recently completed an application for $98,000 to restore the interior of the building in 2027,” Furgal said. “So, if everything goes according to plan, I'm going to you know, knock on wood. The children's room at the Lansing branch should be reopening in 2027.”
