When asked about the Poughkeepsie Public Library District’s future goals, Executive Director Tom Lawrence is fond of quoting “Star Trek.”
“Space is our final frontier,” he’ll say.
The library has spent years searching for a suitable location in the Town of Poughkeepsie to expand into, and they think they’ve finally found one. The $24 million expansion referendum, to be voted on this November, will include plans for Southwood, a new library planned for a Route 9 site between the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery and Locust Grove.
The plan was approved by library trustees on May 24, and would more than double the amount of space the library district currently occupies in three locations: Adriance Memorial Library on Market Street, the Arlington branch library on Haight Avenue, and the Maplewood branch on Maple Street, which is only used for special programming.
The Arlington and Maplewood branches would be closed in favor of Southwood, and a new addition would be constructed replacing the last expansion at Adriance, which was completed in 1923.
“We hope the public will embrace these plans, which have been so very long in the making,” said Duane Hutton, president of the board of trustees. “Additional space for Adriance has been a need since the 1940s, and the branch currently at Arlington has moved several times to accommodate expanding public demand.”
The new spaces, according to Lawrence, would include state-of-the-art facilities for books, computers and public programming and will feature environment friendly energy saving techniques – along with plenty of elbow room. “I don’t think our patrons are going to want to be on top of each other anymore,” he said.
Lawrence said an exhaustive search of 34 potential sites throughout the town led the library to the three-acre Route 9 site, which is attractive because of its central location and proximity to public transportation. Building the new library from the ground up is expected to cost $11.4 million, and could be finished by 2008.
The new building and the improvements to Adriance Memorial Library are actually phases two and three of the library district’s overall expansion plans. Construction on the first phase, which includes an expanded parking lot at Adriance Memorial Library, began in April.