CEDAR RAPIDS - A FEMA decision has narrowed the choices for the Cedar Rapids library and the city.

But one lingering question from June’s Flood has an answer: the library will have to start from scratch.

The outside of the Cedar Rapids Public Library looks much like it has for the past 25 years.

But the inside is barren, void of the 167,000 books, movies and computers that once filled the facility.

“It is so badly damaged that even though we love it, and we have a great deal of respect for it, but that building is no longer going to be usable,” said Tamara Glise with the Cedar Rapids Library.

The flood in June wiped out everything on the first floor, FEMA decided the building is 58.1% damaged. Bad enough to allow the library to build a brand new facility and still use federal dollars.

Library patron Brad Mullin said, “I think it’s a good opportunity for the library to expand new horizons and maybe build a new facility down by the river.”

But “down by the river” might be too close for comfort. The library could start over on the current land, but since it sits in a floodplain, it would have to be built up, and out of a future flood’s way.

So deciding where a new facility would go is uncertain.

“We are trying to get more input from people about what they want to see in a library because the community loves the library and we want them to have what they want and need,” said Glise.

The library has opened a temporary location in Westdale Mall, and at least one visitor favors making it the main location.

“I would just as soon as it stay in this very spot because parking and access is convenient,” said Atkins resident Eldon Stueck.

That’s not likely, since the only hint about where the new library will go is that it will be centrally located, but not in a floodplain.

The library is accepting suggestions for what it could do differently. You can drop off those ideas at the Westdale location.