WAYNESVILLE — Officials at the Mary L. Cook Public Library say they are pushing forward with plans for a $600,000 expansion to the library’s children’s and teen sections despite recent setbacks in its planning.
The expansion will add approximately 2,100 square feet to the Waynesville-based library’s kids’ section and abuot 400 square feet to the library’s teen room.
“To foster a love of reading, we want to have a positive experience for children when they read,” said Linda Swartzel, head librarian for the Mary L. Cook library.
The expansion, which is being designed by Anderson, Ind., based architecture firm, KRM Architecture, was first estimated to cost $1 million to complete, but Swartzel said the library can save $400,000 by using students at the Warren County Career Center for labor in building much of the expansion. Swartzel said the scenario was a “win-win” for both the library and students at WCCC because it gave the students in the school’s construction programs a field-based assignment to learn on.
The current Mary L. Cook library was built in 1987. The building was expanded in 2004, but prohibitive costs at the time forced the library to curtail any plans to expand the children’s section.
“The children’s section was moved but they really didn’t gain any space,” Swartzel said.
She said the current children’s space is too cramped. Towering book shelves are too tall for the tiny readers who would most make use of them and there is not enough space to hold adequate story times and other reading programs.
The money for expansion is coming from a building fund the library has been saving since 2004, Swartzel said.
The expansion appeared in jeopardy in 2009 when state cutbacks caused the library to dig into the fund. Voters approved a 1-mill, five year levy in November 2009 that raised $564,000 annually and allowed the library to continue with expansion plans, Swartzel said.
The planned expansion was setback when city council would not allow a variance in the library’s zoning to match the architecture’s design.
However, Swartzel said architects are redesigning the library to comply with Waynesville’s zoning codes. She is hopeful the building will be opened by next spring.
Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.