Joan Smith fans the pages of the petition that has been circulated asking the board of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County to abandon any thought of moving the Poland Library from its present location. She said 2,000 signatures have been obtained so far. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — Six people spoke at Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County to urge the board to keep the Poland Library in its present location and not build a new library elsewhere.

Poland Village Architectural Review Board member Joan Smith called the Poland Library an “architectural masterpiece” that “celebrates our past, our present and our future. The issues that need to be addressed are fixable,” she said.

She was referring to the news that architects and engineers working on behalf of the library system have determined that the Poland Library has experienced floor slab heaving in the southwestern wing, causing cracks along floor transitions.

The library board voted to explore three options for what to do about the problem: An $8.5 million renovation, a $16.1 million renovation or relocate the library elsewhere at a cost of $11.5 million to $15 million.

On Aug. 19, Dave Smith spoke at the Poland Village Council meeting to discuss the new Save the Poland Library organization and to urge the village council to support the organization.

On Sept. 2, village council responded, passing a resolution asking the library board to “recognize that the Poland branch library is an art of the beating heart and soul of the Village of Poland and the larger Poland community, of which the village is just a part.”

It urged the library board to understand that “abandonment of the present building would be an almost unbelievable betrayal of Poland’s decades of love and loyalty to the Library.”

Joan Smith brought with her Thursday to the meeting at the Michael Kusabala branch of the library system on Mahoning Avenue a stack of papers containing 2,000 signatures on a petition seeking to keep the Poland Library in its present location.

She said Poland Township also approved a resolution urging the library system to keep the library at its present location.

“You do not discard history,” she said of the Poland Library, “You preserve it.” She said when people first learned that the library system was going to consider relocating the library, they found it “unimaginable.”

That’s when it became apparent that “our community and all of Mahoning County needed a voice.” She called the petitions that voice.

Ted Downie, a building contractor, said while collecting signatures on the petitions, he spoke with several hundred people — from Poland but also from communities such as Struthers, Youngstown, Boardman, New Middletown, Lowellville and North Lima.

“Essentially everyone was supportive of maintaining the current Poland Library at its current location and was eager to sign this petition,” he said, adding “Please do not disappoint thousands of your clientele by moving this library from the center of Poland.”

He also mentioned several issues raised in a library news release regarding the current Poland library — its lack of study rooms, indoor and outdoor play areas, a drive up window and dedicated spaces for noise control.

Downie said “not one” of the people he spoke with requested any of those things.

The Poland Village resolution states that the Poland Library is “an architectural and historical landmark, a crown jewel of the Library system and a vital and integral part of the built townscape of the Village of Poland, in the heart of the village’s primary historical district.”

The resolution stated that on or about May 20 the Board of Trustees of the (PLYMC) voted to explore three options for the future of the Poland branch library, which include the option of abandoning the present building and relocating to some other, presently unknown location.”

The board had nothing on its agenda Thursday related to the Poland Library and took no action on that matter.