New library on road to reality

Photos by Renee Sauer / Staff
Francois Chu, 10, works on a Lego toy creation. The Midtown Neighborhood Association's Lego club could move to the new library.

Big brother Zach Pokrant, 9, helps Monet Pokrant, 1, learn how to build with Legos.

Ideas are sought on its services and appearance

Plans for a new Midtown library are moving forward after years of delay.

Although the county and city still disagree about which entity will pay for the library's opening collection, the county about three months ago agreed to release bond money to hire a consultant to design the building, said Pat Corella, assistant library director for the city.

"It's a dream come true," said Anna Marie Patti, a Midtown Neighborhood Association volunteer who has been working on the $2.6 million library and learning center project for about four years.

Burns and Wald-Hopkins architects will begin meeting with neighborhood representatives and the county and city staffs this month to gather ideas on what the building should look like and what services should be offered. The 7,000-square-foot library will be northeast of East Speedway and North Alvernon Way.

The architectural firm also designed the Oro Valley Library and the Miller-Golf Links Branch Library on the Southeast Side, and worked on the remodeling of the Woods Memorial and Valencia libraries.

Neighborhood residents have said they want to move the association's children's groups - there's the chess club, the Lego club, the bike club and the computer club - to the learning center.

"It's going to be a little different than a traditional library," Corella said.

The county bought a 1.7-acre parcel for the library at the southwest corner of North Catalina Avenue and East Fairmount Street in December 2000.

For the last couple of years, the plans have been stalled because of the county and city's disagreement about the opening collection.

Corella said last week that the $300,000 cost of the 15,000 to 20,000 items in the collection would be split evenly.

But Jim Barry, executive assistant to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, said the county had not agreed to that.

Barry said that historically, the jurisdiction in which the library is located pays for the opening collection, and then the cost is split afterward.

The library is being paid for with $2 million in 1997 county bond funds, $450,000 in 2000 city bond funds and $150,000 from a Community Development Block Grant that was awarded four years ago, Corella said.

David Kha, who coordinates many of the children's activities for the neighborhood association, can't wait to clear some of the bicycles, computer parts and Lego collections from his home and back yard and take some of it to the center.

"We don't have a storage place right now," he said.

Dozens of kids from the neighborhood and elsewhere take part in the programs.

Patti said neighbors hope to make the center a safe haven for children and a fun and engaging place for them to spend their time after school and other times.

Longtime neighborhood volunteer Martha Cooper, who died in November, worked for years on the library and learning center.

"We were hoping that the neighborhood will be her legacy and that we can name the library after her," Patti said.

* Contact reporter Megan Rutherford at 434-4073 or at meganr@azstarnet.com.

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