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Heritage Public Library representatives came before New Kent’s Board of Supervisors last week, seeking the board’s endorsement and commitment to funding for a two-phase, $2.3 million plan to convert the main building at the county’s old middle school into a permanent library home.

While appearing content with an architect’s design for the 80 year-old structure, supervisors stopped well short of pledging financial support.

Library Board of Trustees chairman Joyce Peterson and librarian Barbara Winters, along with John Hopke and Sarah Barber from the Williamsburg-based Hopke and Associates architectural firm, unveiled plans for the old school conversion during supervisors’ Jan. 27 work session.

Plans call for a 17,800 square-foot library once both phases are complete. Phase one entails creating 10,020 square feet of floor space at a cost of about $1.7 million. The remainder of the overall price tag goes into the second phase that entails an additional 7,780 square feet.

Library representatives said their goal is to finish phase one and move in by January 2013. That’s when the lease expires on the 4,500 square-foot building on Route 155 that the library now rents for $41,000 per year as its New Kent branch. No time line exists for now on the second phase.

Phase one, they said, takes care of library basics such as creating space for children, young adult, and adult sections as well as classrooms, meeting rooms, and offices. Phase two adds more classrooms and meeting rooms along with ability to expand existing collections and volumes.

Hopke told the board the goal is to maintain the building’s historical features while improving the entrance, especially for handicapped access, and revealing the old school’s auditorium, which is to function as the library’s centerpiece complete with a circulation desk and reading areas.

“What we want to do is kind of return it to its glory,” he said.

Site preparation along with work to repair and stabilize the building can take place simultaneously, possibly later this year, Hopke said.

“What do you want from us?” supervisors’ chairman Marty Sparks asked of the group.

Peterson replied that they sought the board’s approval of plans along with a commitment for funding, perhaps as early as supervisors’ February meeting.

“I don’t know if we can do that,” Sparks said. “It’s something we’d love to do, but these are very difficult times. We don’t know what the future holds.”

Sparks said the board would consider the matter during upcoming budget deliberations and promised an answer.

For now, the county’s Capital Improvement Plan lists a $4.5 million library facility two years away in fiscal 2011-12.

Heritage Public Library serves both New Kent and Charles City counties and has been in temporary locations since its Providence Forge location was condemned for insurmountable electrical issues in January 2008. Charles City’s branch is currently housed inside the county’s courthouse, and plans are under way there to construct a new library building.