Three of the District’s four neighborhood branch libraries that closed in 2004 for reconstruction will finally be replaced with interim modular units early next year, though community activists say they aren’t holding their breath.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Alexander Padro, a Shaw advisory neighborhood commissioner. “We’ve already had our neighborhood branch closed for two years and all they’ve done is fence it off and cancel the contract.”

The D.C. Public Library will lease three 4,200-square-foot modular buildings, which are slated for Anacostia, Benning and Watha T. Daniel-Shaw,from Williams Scotsman Inc. The units cost about $620,000 each.

Monica Lewis, library system spokeswoman, could not describe each unit’s capacity for storage of books. But the interim units will hold more computers than the closed branches - 16 public access PCs, eight children’s PCs and two catalogue PCs - and will have a children’s section and an adult reading area.

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The fourth shuttered library, Tenley-Friendship, will be served by a leased storefront at 4200 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

The four branches were closed in December 2004 for reconstruction. But a $20 million contract with Hess Construction Co. was canceled less than a year later as library officials re-evaluated their plans. The library system found it “much more difficult than we originally realized it would be to set up interim library service,” Lewis said, citing real estate prices and other considerations.

“I think the modular unit idea stinks, but the people need something to replace their branch while they’re closed,” said Robin Diener, director of the Library Renaissance Project.

Early next year, the library will select architects to design four new permanent branches, Lewis said.

In the meantime, the Anacostia modular unit should arrive later this month.

It will require 30 days to assemble the 18 massive pieces and then run sewer, water and electricity to the facility, Lewis said. The other two units should arrive soon afterward.

Areas previously served by the shuttered branches are being visited five days a week by a “high-tech bookmobiles,” which community activists have said are cramped, meagerly stocked and poorly marketed.

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com