Library Park Campus – Moving Forward
In 2025, an Ad Hoc Committee was formed to address community needs and aging facilities to reimagine the Library, Senior Center, and Library Park. After more than four decades of heavy use and accumulated deferred maintenance, the buildings could use improvement to better meet the needs of library users, seniors, and the community at large. The Committee’s Project Goals were to identify ways to modernize and upgrade facilities; create a vibrant, intergenerational community campus that supports current programs and adapts to future needs; and better integrate the library and senior center, to increase efficiency, and to encourage intergenerational activities.
The committee identified the following as key factors for an updated facility:
- Expanded spaces for reading, working and studying
- Children’s “story room” space with amphitheater seating
- Clearly identified open-hours and after-hours access points
- Optimization of service points to allow staff to oversee/monitor the activity at the facility and expeditiously remove people whose behavior is disruptive
- Shared-use spaces
- Easy ground-floor access and egress and space for seniors
- Kitchen adjacent to a large meeting room or room where senior meals are served
The City is embarking upon a number of high-priority infrastructure projects at this time and will utilize these findings to explore options for the Library Park Campus in the near future. Stay tuned!