SPRINGFIELD – The city will upgrade the East Springfield Library, saying the busy branch has not seen major improvements since it opened in 1932.
“We want to make sure our library has the capacity to serve the community for the next 30 years,” said Kathy Brown, president of the East Springfield Neighborhood Council.
The council started talking about rebuilding or expanding and renovating the building on Osborne Terrace around 2014, but the first community meeting to start the process was held around 2019. That came just as the new $9.5 million East Forest Park Library, built with the help of a $4.9 million state grant, was completed.
Springfield City Library officials last week petitioned the City Council for approval to apply for a Massachusetts Public Library construction grant that will help pay for the project. It also requested a $150,000 transfer from the city’s capital project fund to cover initial planning costs.
“It doesn’t meet the standards of a 21st-century library. We can’t provide the services that we can provide at other libraries,” said Molly Fogarty, director of the Springfield library system.
It is the only Springfield library that has never seen substantial renovations and it needs them. It measures about 3,000 square feet on two levels, but the only level that is accessible to the disabled is 2,200 square feet, she said.
‘Over a decade’
“The neighborhood has been working on this for over a decade,” said City Councilor Michael Fenton, who represents the East Springfield area. “It requires substantial improvements and maintenance. It is the library that probably has received the least improvements in the city.”
Brown said the library, located in the middle of a residential neighborhood and between the busy streets of Carew and Page Boulevard, gets a lot of use.
Libraries are far more today than just books, she said. The neighborhood needs enough space for computers for adults and students who want a place to do homework. It also needs a private meeting room and an area for remote meetings and children’s programming.
The council is asking people to fill out a survey about what the library needs to offer now. It can be found online at tinyurl.com/surveyESB. There are paper forms available at the branch, but Brown encouraged people to answer the survey online if possible because it saves members from having to type in the answers.
Planning is in the preliminary stages, so no decisions have been made on the project, including whether the building should be renovated and expanded, torn down and replaced or a new one constructed in a different location.
The City Council voted 13-0 on both proposals that would start the process to improve the library.
“This is a great project, the neighborhood really deserves it,” City Councilor Tracye Whitfield said.