Library's new West Side branch will be named for Michael Kusalaba


YOUNGSTOWN — The new West Side Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County will be named the Michael Kusalaba Branch, in memory of the electrical engineer, who was a 1964 Chaney High School graduate and died in 2009.

Heidi Daniel, library director, and Jan Strasfeld, executive director of the Youngstown Foundation, announced this morning that the Michael Kusalaba Fund has donated $1.68 million toward the project, in exchange for the naming rights.

Their announcement immediately followed approval by the library board of trustees’ development committee of a memorandum of understanding on the building’s naming rights.

In August, Daniel proposed to the library system trustees a $2.8 million project, in which the existing deteriorating branch at 2815 Mahoning Avenue would be demolished and replaced with a new building on the same library-owned site.

The new, single-story building, which would open in 2017, would heavily emphasize technology and have meeting and study rooms.

It would serve as a neighborhood branch and as a place to house materials and vehicles for “pop-up” libraries that visit housing projects, schools and community events.

Also in August, the library board adopted a naming rights policy for its buildings, which says such rights may be granted to a donor who contributes at least 60 percent of the estimated project cost.

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