Canby Herald Online

Steps to a new library?

Work is underway to see if a new library is viable down the road

• By: Peggy Savage  
• Published: 2/3/2010 1:36:27 PM

Photo By: Peggy SavageCANBY PUBLIC LIBRARY -
Library Director Penny Hummel

It may only be a dream right now — but city officials have begun tentative plans for a new downtown library.

With the escalating downtown development in Canby, there has been growing interest among city officials in building a new library, in connection with the new theater complex, one of the downtown’s lynchpin developments through the Urban Renewal Agency.

Library Director Penny Hummel said actual construction of a new building could be a few years down the road, but that the city council is looking at the plan “holistically,” as part of the tentative plans for a new police station and perhaps city hall — all of which would require voter approval. Hummel said the current library is not adequate for the city’s needs.

“We are exploring what’s possible and seeing what’s feasible,” Hummel said recently. “This building has been a good library for Canby, and served the community well. But we could better serve the community with an enhanced facility. We want to take a look at what the community needs are and think about where we’d want to be in the near future.”

Along with city Economic Development Manager Catherine Comer, Hummel met with representatives from the DLR Group, an architectural firm that has been developing documentation of library building program needs.

The architects gave a space assessment for the library that recommends a new facility of 25,705 square feet. A funding plan for the new building could include a $1 million capital grant from Clackamas County, urban renewal funding, private fundraising and a construction bond.

“From an economic development perspective, a new library in the historic downtown core could potentially draw new customers and stimulate the growth for downtown businesses,” Comer said Tuesday. “The Canby Urban Renewal Agency is currently working on a ten-year plan for development and opportunities that will strengthen the city center using the Canby Downtown Master Plan as our guideline.”

The Canby Library Board began discussion one year ago this month on pursuing plans to build a new library building that meets both the Oregon Library Association standards and community needs. The board is interested in a possible public-private partnership for a development that would include a library. And now that the library district will be offering each city in the network a share of the old library levy funding to apply towards capital expansion projects, city administrators are showing interest. Canby should receive its share in 2011, according to board documents.

The Clackamas County Library District will generate $11.8 million, a number that allows all district libraries to reach the Oregon Library Association’s standards for size and circulation.

The funds already budgeted for libraries through 2014 will be distributed to each city’s library, with each library receiving $1 million over a five-year span, which would allow cities to expand facilities and services to accommodate larger service populations.

“In the few months I’ve been on the job here in Canby, it’s become very evident that our library is well-loved and well-used by people of all ages,” Hummel said Friday. “To really provide the services that people in this community want and need, however, we clearly need a larger and improved facility. As the council considers the city’s priorities in the years to come, I’m very pleased that they have expressed their support for a new downtown library, and look forward to working with them to make this dream a reality.”

Hummel and Comer gave an update on the project at a December city council work session, presenting general priorities for a new library.

At the meeting, the council expressed support for a new library, but also indicated that city officials must decide how the library project would fit into the context of other needs within the community and that the city would likely need to go for a bond to fund a new library.

The discussion proceeded to the possibility of pursuing master planning on a grander scale that would include a city complex or a library specific analysis.
Hummel said Friday that the city would need to find a location for the new library building somewhere in the downtown area.

“We’d need a new spot for it because the current spot is not big enough, but we wouldn’t move that far from where the library now is,” she said.

The police department owns land in the industrial park, which, if a bond is approved in the future by voters, would be the home of the new police station, she pointed out. The city hall also needs a larger building. The relocation of those facilities would free up that land for the new library building.

“But they need to figure that piece out,” she said. 



 

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