Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Marshfield City Council Supports New Library But Questions Concept of Community Center

Marshfield City Council questions library's expansion needs. (Marshfield News Herald, 1/25/2012)

Excerpt: The majority of Marshfield City Council members support renovating or building a new public library on its current site, 211 E. Second St. 
But the library steering committee's plan to incorporate a new community center into the proposal drew strong resistance from council members during Tuesday night's council meeting. 

Nearly every member questioned why a community center was planned to be integrated into the city's public library, and why the library needs to almost double its current size.

The move to integrate the library with a community center was developed during meetings with residents to learn what they wanted a new library to offer, said Lori Belongia, library director. 
The proposed plans show a new library linked by an enclosed courtyard to the current library, which would become the senior center. 

"The community input was to have the two buildings together so that in weather like this people don't need to be outside," said Belongia, who added there could be many uses of the community center, such as providing a location for nonprofit groups to share office space. 

Combining the library with a community center "will provide a convenient location to serve multiple needs of residents," Belongia said.

Related articles:
Marshfield library/community center project continues to move forward. (11/12/2011)
Design development for new library/community center.  (9/15/2011)
Better to plan for a new library now than when the roof starts to leak.  (11/12/2010)
Design development in progress.  (11/9/2010)
Community input sought for library improvement plans.  (6/9/2010)

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