Library committee puts 2 area firms at top of list for East, South branches

The committee wants workers to display their skills on hometown projects.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Two local firms top the list of preferred architects for the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County's proposed East and South branch libraries.
At a meeting Tuesday at Austintown library, the library's building and sites committee chose 4M Company on Glenwood Avenue for the East branch project and Ronald Cornell Faniro Architects of East Boardman Street for the South branch.
The committee will make the recommendation to the full board of trustees at a meeting at 4 p.m. April 27 at Austintown library.
Some members said local firms should do the work to keep library money in the Mahoning Valley economy and give local workers a chance to display and sharpen their skills on a hometown project.
Poland, Austintown look
Member Millicent Counts said East Side residents want the proposed new library construction in their neighborhood to have the same look and feel inside and out as the Poland and Austintown libraries. She said it would also be nice, however, to have the South branch be something totally different and unique.
Members said the new libraries are meant to last the next 50 or 75 years, so most of them won't be involved in other projects.
Echoing that sentiment, Counts said she wants the new libraries to be "a nice legacy that we leave."
Committee members discussed options of choosing different architects for each project or giving both to one architect.
Carlton Sears, library director, said the projects are large enough for two architects to work independently.
The committee's consensus is to give the projects to two different local firms to provide more opportunities.
The benefits
Members said local firms are in touch with the community and care about what the people want. Local firms also have some idea of the character of the neighborhoods, and the libraries can reflect that character, they said.
Janet Loew, library communications and public relations director, said the board received proposals from 10 architects for design of new libraries on the city's South and East sides. Four were local and six were from outside the Mahoning Valley, she said.
After the board chooses architects, library officials will enter into negotiations with them to achieve contracts, Loew said. There are currently no design concepts or price tags on the projects, she said.
Tom Roepke of Boardman, a retired facilities engineer, is a construction and maintenance consultant to the library and will be the project engineer for both projects. Roepke said he will work closely with the architects and construction managers as plans and then construction progresses, and report progress and any problems to Sears and the trustees.
Modernization
Library officials have said the new libraries will replace current ones to meet shifts in population and the public's use of library branches.
South library is a renovation project and will be at Market Street and Midlothian Boulevard in the former Giant Eagle building. The library will move from its location several blocks north at 1771 Market, near Eagle Heights Academy.
East library's new location will be a new construction project at East High Avenue and Early Road. The East library is now at 6 N. Jackson St.
tullis@vindy.com