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Canfield library on schedule
POLAND
Construction of the new Canfield branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County is on schedule and will continue through the winter, said Ronald Cornell Faniro, project architect.
The new building’s exterior perimeter foundation walls have been completed, and the foundations of the interior support columns should be finished next week, he said.
“It’s a wood-frame building. There’s nothing temperature-sensitive about the erection of a wood-frame building,” Faniro said at the board’s meeting in Poland.
He said, however, work could be suspended on days when inclement weather, such as an ice storm, might make it dangerous to work.
The new $5 million library is being built at 43 W. Main St. on the same site as the previous library, which was demolished this fall.
The construction schedule calls for the new building to be substantially completed by mid-October 2015, Faniro said.
Library officials plan to open it by the end of 2015, said Janet Loew, library communications and public relations director.
A total of $464,127 already has been pledged toward the $500,000 private capital campaign fundraising goal for that library, Loew said.
The Canfield Rotary Club and Atty. Nils Johnson Jr. presented donations of $50,000 each toward that campaign to library officials Friday.
Library officials are working on a potential agreement with a Canfield business that is interested in operating a coffee shop, but not a full-service cafe, within the new library, Heidi Daniel, library director, told library trustees Thursday.
Daniel also displayed a preliminary drawing by another architect, Ray Jaminet, showing potential renovations to the 22-year-old Boardman library branch on Glenwood Avenue.
Among the items proposed for that project are:
Re-carpeting the entire floor.
Increasing the number of electrical outlets to facilitate laptop-computer use.
Creating a single, unified reference and circulation desk for patron convenience, ease of staffing and monitoring of the library.
Adding an early-literacy station and reading nook to the children’s area.
Adding an outdoor adult terrace and children’s garden.
The trustees approved the promotion of Deborah McCullough from public-service manager to deputy director, raising her annual salary from $75,955 to $79,752. She now performs both jobs.
For the general fund, trustees approved a revised 2014 budget of $17.2 million and a preliminary budget of $18.1 million for 2015.