The buildings that are completed and re-opened have lived up to the expectations set when voters approved a 2012 property tax bond issue to revamp the system, said Tim Kambitsch, Dayton Metro Library executive director.
“It is an affirmation of what we thought people wanted to see in the libraries: an increase in technology, in meeting space and in opportunities for people to do more than just individually research materials,” he said. “There’s a whole lot more collaboration that goes on in our libraries than we saw before.”
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Kambitsch said a lack of a necessary construction material over the winter has delayed work on the $7-million Wilmington-Stroop Branch in Kettering and the $7.5-million Southeast Branch. The Southeast Branch will is a combination of the old Belmont and East branches and is under construction next to Belmont High School.
“We didn’t get the parking lots finished before the asphalt plants closed down for the winter,” he said. “Due to the inability to get parking lots finished in the fall we need to wait for them. So summer is more guaranteed.”
New libraries have already opened in Brookville, Miamisburg, New Lebanon, the Northwest Branch in Dayton, and Vandalia.
The centerpiece of the replacement project was the renovation of the main downtown library at a cost of $64 million. It reopened in August 2017.
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Like the main library, four others have been extensively renovated: the Electra C. Doren Branch, Kettering-Moraine Branch, Miami Twp. Branch and the West Carrollton Branch, the most recent to reopen after renovations.
The entire project has been an effort to update the libraries with the information people want, the kind of technology they find beneficial and inviting spaces to use, Kambitsch said.
“One of the things we recognized in our new buildings as opposed to our legacy buildings we have yet to renovate or replace is that people are staying a lot longer because they are doing more than shop the shelves or pick up reserves,” he said. “They are coming for events that are going on, they are using the meeting rooms. They are staying longer because they are enjoying the space. They enjoy having access to the high-speed technology that we have.”
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Kambitsch said about 2.5 million people step through the system’s doors annually, but the door counts don’t reflect the increase in usage.
“People are staying longer. We see more parents of young children. We see more strollers in the library. We see more teens taking advantage of the hip spaces we provided,” he said. “You have to come into the libraries to see the environment and to see how people are enjoying it to really appreciate what this bond issue has done for our community.”
Five new libraries, in various stages of planning and property acquisition, will be built to replace the Burkhardt, Huber Heights, Northmont, Trotwood branches. The Madden Hills and Westwood branches will be combined in a new West Branch.
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The Trotwood Branch is next in line to be constructed, Kambitsch said. At 13,000 square feet and estimated to cost about $5 million, the library will be built at East Main Street and MacGregor Avenue, two blocks from the current building. The construction contract is expected to be awarded in February with a 2020 completion date.
Site selection and property acquisition is underway on the remaining four new branches. While they are last on construction schedule, they won’t get shortchanged, Kambitsch said.
“We’ve been building these branches and opening them up and we’ve been keeping within our budget on each one of the branches. We have provided appropriate funding for all the additional branches that are still to come,” he said. “We fully anticipate being able to deliver the same quality branches in the last segment that we did in the first segments of this project.”
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