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Board awards Canfield library contracts
Photo
This is how the new Canfield branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will appear from West Main Street (U.S. Route 224). The current library will close for demolition Sept. 20, and the new library will open on the same site in 12 to 18 months.
YOUNGSTOWN
After a decade of planning, Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County trustees awarded nearly $4.1 million in construction contracts, all to Mahoning or Shenango valley companies, for the new Canfield library branch.
The existing 5,104-square-foot Canfield branch, built in 1969, will close Sept. 20, and it will be demolished and replaced on the same site at 43 W. Main St. with a new, single-story, 18,135-square-foot building.
The debt-free project will cost about $5 million, including design, demolition, construction and equipment costs.
A temporary library will open Oct. 1 in rent-free quarters at the Mill Creek MetroParks Farm, 7574 Columbiana-Canfield Road, and remain open during the 12-to-18 month demolition and construction period.
The temporary branch will be open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and will offer children’s programming in partnership with the park district. It also will be open during special park events.
On Thursday, the board awarded the $3,130,000 general demolition and construction contract to Hudson Construction Inc. of Hermitage, Pa., the lowest of 12 bidders.
Other contracts awarded are: Morrone Mechanical Inc. of Lowellville, plumbing, $129,000; York-Mahoning Mechanical Contractors Inc. of Youngstown, mechanical trades, $186,300; RNL Fire Systems LLC of Youngstown, fire protection, $61,599; and Tri-Area Electric Co. Inc. of Youngstown, electrical, $573,668.
“It’s more than a library; it really is a community center,” said Ronald Cornell Faniro of Youngstown, project architect. “We’re hoping that this becomes the heart and soul of the Canfield community.”
The new library will feature an entrance lounge and coffee counter, a large meeting room, a smaller activity and training space, two conference rooms available for small-group study, a single service desk, quiet reading dens in the back of the adult section, a teen room with closable glass doors and a teen study room and an expanded children’s section, including an “early literacy playscape,” integrating play and early literacy.
Its primary exterior wall color will be khaki with white trim, and it will have a dark-brown metal roof.
The parking lot will be entered from either West Main Street (U.S. Route 224) or from Lisbon Street (U.S. Route 62).
The library, which will have covered entrance walkways, will have sidewalks linking it to West Main, Lisbon and South Broad Street (state Route 46) and the Village Green.
“It is very pedestrian-friendly,” Faniro said of the library, which is in the center of Canfield, within a short walk of Canfield Middle School.
“We’re very excited because the community has been waiting for this library for quite a long time. It’s been in the planning stages for over a decade. The board has been saving up money over that period,” said Janet Loew, library communications and public-relations director.
“This is one of our busiest locations,” in the 15-branch library system, she said of the Canfield branch.
“Canfield remains the building that circulates the most per square foot in the system, and it is also an area of the county that has seen population growth,” remarked Library Director Heidi Daniel.
“I’m just pleased that the library has continued its history of being debt-free. I feel that’s in the best interests of the patrons and the taxpayers because borrowing is very expensive,” said Susan Merriman, library fiscal officer.