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Newport Library cafe may reopen this summer
BOARDMAN
Trustees of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County have authorized library Director Heidi Daniel to pursue a rental agreement with a Roman Catholic organization for the cafe at the Newport library branch.
The cafe, to be known as Cafe Augustine, would be operated by the St. Augustine Society, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, beginning in late July.
The society would pay rent plus utilities for the cafe, which would be patterned after a similar operation, known as Cafe Reconcile in New Orleans.
The Newport library cafe would be open to the public for lunch and operated as a sheltered workshop and life-skills course for people between age 18 and 24, “who got disconnected somehow from the working world,” said the Rev. Edward Brienz, director of the propagation of the faith and missions office of the Diocese.
The previous Newport library cafe operator, New Seasonings, moved out last fall.
In addition to benefitting the library and its patrons by reopening the cafe, Daniel said: “We also liked the fact that this program brought in a social mission.”
In other action Monday, the board authorized Susan Merriman, its fiscal officer, to advertise for bids for renovation this year of the Boardman branch.
The board authorized its buildings and sites committee to award the renovation contracts.
Key features of the $637,000 renovation plan are:
Merger of the clerks’ and librarians’ service desks into a single service desk, with an unobstructed view of almost all public areas of the library.
Conversion of the west end of the building into a flexible space that can be closed off with sliding doors into a meeting room or opened up into a reading room.
Addition of an outdoor adult reading terrace and an adjacent children’s garden on the northeast corner of the building.
Installation of return slots for borrowed library materials in the west side of the building, so those materials will drop directly into a library staff work space and no longer have to be collected from outdoor bins.
Addition of a coffee vending counter.
The project will be debt-free and funded by the library’s building and repair fund.
The Boardman library is expected to remain open during most of the project, but it will close as necessary during construction.