Campbell city, school officials make their pitch to county library reps

By Sarah Lehr

slehr@vindy.com

CAMPBELL

City and school officials say Campbell would be an ideal location for a new, consolidated library branch.

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County is considering merging its Campbell, Struthers and Brownlee Woods (Youngstown) outposts, which means branches would close in two communities.

Library representatives met late last week with city and school district leaders, including school Superintendent Matthew Bowen, Mayor Nick Phillips and school board members. At that meeting, they made their pitch for a library site on school district-owned land on state Route 616.

If selected, officials said the district would donate the land to the library. Campbell leaders also said the library could save money through shared services.

The officials touted traffic counts and paving projects on Route 616 and argued it would be a convenient location for residents of other communities such as Lowellville, Coitsville, Struthers and Youngstown’s far East Side.

The school board has announced plans to use carryover dollars funded through the state to build an indoor recreation center on Route 616, adjacent to Campbell’s proposed library.

Bowen said the district does not have a cost estimate for the recreation center, which would be available to Campbell students and their families, because the plan is still in its infancy.

City leaders said the combination of the library and recreation center would attract patrons.

Heidi Daniel, library system executive director, thanked city officials for a well-prepared presentation and stressed that plans for a possible consolidation are in their early stages.

The last two strategic plans for the library allude to the consolidation. The most-recent plan, passed by the library’s board in 2014, is available online. That six-year-plan, called the My Library 2020 plan, cites a need to invest in fewer, larger libraries that could stay open longer hours, provide more technology and be better staffed.

There is no specific timeline for the proposed merger of the Struthers, Campbell and Brownlee Woods branches, library representatives said.

Ruby Peltz, a city resident and a retired Campbell teacher, said she regards the presence of a library in Campbell as crucial. Peltz regularly visits her local library and remembers walking with her students to check out books back when the library still used card catalogs.

Dorothy Lisko, 81, who has lived in Campbell her entire life, noted the library is particularly important for the city’s low-income residents who might not otherwise have Internet access.

“It warms my heart when I go in there and see people using the computers,” Lisko said.