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Library will join Campbell Schools’ activity center
By Justin Wier
YOUNGSTOWN
The Campbell branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County is committed to moving into Campbell City Schools’ proposed Activity Recreation and Cultural Center.
“It allows us to continue to serve Campbell in what I feel is a more meaningful way,” said Heidi Daniel, the library’s executive director.
The library board voted to approve the move at a special meeting Wednesday morning.
Campbell Superintendent Matthew Bowen envisions the Activity Recreation and Cultural Center, or ARCC, as a community hub.
Phase I, expected to be open in the fall of 2019, plans to include two regulation basketball courts, a 160-meter track and classrooms for a STEM school operated by the Mahoning County Education Service Center and Mahoning County Career and Technical Center in addition to the library branch. Phases II and III would add multipurpose rooms and an auditorium.
The building will be along state Route 616 near the district’s K-7 school. It’s also a good location for residents of Coitsville and Lowellville, Daniel said. The library does not have branches in those communities.
The board expects the library’s share of the construction to cost about $525,000, which will cover the lease on the 3,000-square-foot space for the next 50 years. The agreement allows the library to leave the facility in 10 years if the board is unhappy with the arrangement.
Campbell schools will own the building. The library will be a tenant and cover utility and maintenance costs for its portion of the facility.
The agreement is in line with arrangements the Stark County library system has with two school districts. Daniel said those seem to be successful.
Campbell would have went ahead with the ARCC with or without the library’s participation, but Bowen said the branch will benefit all parties involved.
“That’s what’s valuable,” he said. “We’re all going to coexist in one space to educate the whole child and provide additional benefits to all families.”
Board members had asked for more details on the arrangement at a special board meeting earlier this month.
For a standalone building, the library typically spends about $250 per square foot which includes architect fees, landscaping, outdoor lighting and parking.
Using that calculus, it would cost the library $750,000 to build its own 3,000-square-foot space in Campbell, $225,000 more than its portion of the ARCC will cost under current projections.
Daniel believes the library will benefit in other ways as well. She said it has struggled to engage children in the Campbell area. By partnering with the schools, the library will come to the kids.
“It’s really innovative and exciting, and we’re glad Mr. Bowen brought it to us,” Daniel said.
The library closed the current Campbell branch earlier this month due to a failing roof. Daniel said they will have pop-up libraries through the summer and open a temporary branch in the Campbell Schools’ D’Amato Fieldhouse at 280 Sixth Street this fall. The Struthers branch will also be open an extra day each week until the temporary branch opens.
The library still plans to consolidate the Struthers and Brownlee Woods branches. The Campbell branch was included in consolidation plans before the arrangement with the city schools.