The library drop box saga has come to an end.

The city will put the library drop boxes near the drive-through for Union Savings Bank next door to the library within a week or two. That will solve a problem that has been nagging the city since the summer.

Residents have been able to drive up and drop off books and other items from the library into boxes in front of the library without getting out of their cars since 1998. That system broke down this summer when the city worker collecting the books went out on a long-term disability leave. Since August, residents had to get out of their cars, either to drop off books behind the library into boxes near the back door or in front of the library into boxes near the front door.

People have complained about getting out of their cars, and the City Council took up the issue this fall. The solution that residents wanted was a drive-through drop off.

"I'm so happy with this," said Candace Milligan, a life-long Danbury resident, who attended the City Council's ad hoc meeting on the issue in November. "It's 10 feet from where they are now. They don't have to hire anyone. We can start in a week. It's a great solution."

As the City Council's ad hoc committee meeting drew to a close on Nov. 30, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton volunteered to look behind the library for a convenient place to put the drop boxes. He said the city would be renovating the former Immanuel Lutheran School and its parking lot, and maybe in that work, a solution might be found.

The next day, Wednesday, is the day each week he schedules a morning drive around the city with Antonio Iadarola, Public Works Director. It was pouring rain, so the tour didn't take place until Monday.

On Monday, the mayor and Iadarola noticed there was room for the drop boxes in the existing drive-through at Union Savings Bank, right next to the library. The city worked out an arrangement with the bank, and the boxes will be moved to the drive-through within a week.

The boxes were located inside the library until February 1996, when someone put something on fire into the drop box. That started a fire that destroyed the library. After that, the boxes were moved to the small triangle at the corner of Main and West streets. Customers liked that, because they could pull up, roll down their window, and slide their books into the box. They could drive away without ever getting out.

A city worker picked up the books each day for years, until he went on a medical leave last summer. Since then, nothing seemed to work. Library workers thought it was too far and too hard to push the heavy wheeled cart. They complained about crossing and recrossing traffic. There were union concerns, because it wasn't in anyone's bargaining agreement to do this job. Because of those problems, the boxes were relocated to behind the library and in front of the library, but it forced people to get out of their cars to return books.

"It was unsafe," said Milligan, who said in the Nov. 30 meeting that even though Danbury may be the state's safest city, people don't like walking around behind buildings in the dark. She said that is a potential liability for the city.