The Madden Hills Branch and the Westwood Branch are expected to close in spring 2016, at which time they will consolidate into a single, roughly 22,000-square-foot building.
Library officials want a location that conveniently serves households both north and south of U.S. 35 and does not put pedestrians at risk by requiring them to cross a busy highway.
Officials said they are still accepting recommendations for the new location, and community members next month will have an opportunity to share their views at a community forum.
The goal is to have the site selected by mid-January, so the project can enter the design stage, which also will be based on community feedback.
“The challenge is, where do we put it at?” said Tim Kambitsch, executive director of the Dayton Metro Library. “Once we’ve identified the site, (we’ll decide) what’s it going to look like, what’s it going to feel like, whether the priorities we’ll have will be meeting spaces versus reader space, or space for teens and other kinds of activities.”
The Madden Hills Branch at 2542 Germantown St. offers about 7,000 square feet of space, while the Westwood Branch at 3207 Hoover Ave. offers about 5,000.
The two branches will close and merge into a much larger building, featuring more computers and technology and better amenities. The branch will be 20 percent larger than the Huber Heights Branch, which is currently the largest branch.
The project is part of the library system’s $187 million construction plan, which will consolidate 20 branches into 16 facilities.
The potential sites all of have upsides and downsides.
The Wright Co. factory site, located east of Abbey Avenue and south of East Third Street, is about a mile from both the Madden Hills and Westwood branches.
The site is centrally located, and there could partnership opportunities, related to the National Aviation Heritage Alliance’s interest in acquiring and redeveloping a portion of the factory site, officials said.
But west Dayton is divided by U.S. 35, and officials are concerned about putting the new branch at a location where youths will have to cross the high-traffic highway.
“I don’t want to wake up some morning and learn some kid got killed trying to run across the street,” Kambitsch said. “There would have to be some kind of alternative way to get across 35.”
Infrastructure improvements can be made to prevent pedestrians from having to walk across that part of U.S. 35, said Tony Sculimbrene, executive director of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance, a private nonprofit.
Sculimbrene said his group is working to acquire federal grant funding to create a better ingress and egress to the former industrial site, a project they will pursue regardless of whether the library decides to relocate there.
“We’ve expressed an interest in having the library be a partner at the site,” he said.
The former Naval Reserve School at 410 Gettysburg Ave. is also under consideration for placement of the new branch.
The property provides plenty of space that is in a visible location, which is close to Westwood and Residence Park, the two most populated neighborhoods in west Dayton, Kambitsch said.
But people who live south of U.S. 35 may feel that location is a little too far away and inconvenient.
Constructing the new facility at the area by McCall Street at Gettysburg Avenue would make it easily accessible on foot or by bike, car or bus, Kambitsch said.
“It provides a very, very straightforward crossing of 35 in a way that no other street does,” he said.
Kambitsch said the parcels in that area are a mix of privately held properties, and acquiring them could be complicated, since their ownership status is unclear.
But he suggested the city of Dayton may be able to assist in alleviating ownership issues associated with the properties.
Other sites have been proposed by community members, including the site of a former Kroger grocery store.
The massive, system-wide construction project is making progress, with construction on the main branch downtown expected to get underway by the end of the year.
However, the library still has not identified a site for the new Burkhardt Branch, currently located at 4680 Burkhardt Ave. The library is studying the possibility of putting the new Southeast Branch at a property next to Belmont High School.
Kattie Gambel, 81, who lives on Edith Street, just behind the Westwood Branch, said she and her children have used the branch for more than five decades.
Gambel said she will continue patronizing the library and believes others will do the same when the new branch is built, assuming its within several miles of the existing facility and offers enough parking spaces.
“I’ll use it,” she said.
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