By J.T. WHITEHOUSE

Staff writer

YOUNGSTOWN — The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County last week released the official findings and recommendations of a 10-year Master Plan for all of its 13 library branches, including relocating the Poland and Struthers sites.

The official notification read, “led by the architectural and design firm Bialosky with additional consultation by Library Strategies, the plan was compiled over a period of roughly 18 months, using internal and local statistics and data, as well as patron, community and staff feedback. The recommendations will be analyzed and reviewed by PLYMC leadership as well as the board of trustees.”

Commenting on the Master Plan was PLYMC Executive Director Aimee Fifarek.

“This plan gives us a clear, community-informed roadmap for the next decade so future decisions about our library spaces are thoughtful, strategic, and grounded in how people actually use them,” Fifarek said.

Each library was mentioned in the plan, along with recommendations on upgrading or building new. The Brownlee Woods branch was recommended to be combined with a new Struthers library, with the cost of a new library estimated at $6.8 million. The estimated cost to relocate the Brownlee Woods branch to Struthers is $1.6 million.

The master plan recommends repurposing the current Struthers library into a community center.

POLAND LIBRARY

It was the recommendation for the Poland branch that had some Poland residents seeing red. The recommendation was to build a new 16,000-square-foot library at a different location at a cost of $12 million, which does not include the purchase price of property for the new building.

Several members of the Save Our Library committee attended the meeting and Joan Smith signed up days prior to be able to address the library board.

“When all this originally came out, the same experts said everything (at the Poland Library) was fixable,” she said. “Now they say the long-term maintenance would be too much, so they recommended new.”

Architects and engineers working on behalf of the library system previously determined that the Poland Library has experienced floor slab heaving in the southwestern wing, causing cracks along floor transitions.

Joan’s husband, Dave Smith, was also disappointed and said, “We are dismayed at how this is going. After all the work we’ve done as a committee that wants to keep our present library.”

Larry Bartos, another member of the Save Our Library committee, also attended.

“We were not allowed to ask any questions,” Bartos said. “It was hard to tell how the library trustees feel about Poland. It seems the Poland Library will be moved out of Poland and will only be half as large.”

He said the people of Poland were highly upset over the recommendation as many had put money into the present branch. He said residents raised approximately $1.2 million to build the Poland Branch into what it is today.

As for the presentation, Bartos said the slides had a lot of small, unreadable print that he thinks may have been done deceptively. He said the small print and the concentration on Struthers seemed to have been done on purpose.

Both the Smiths and Bartos said they will keep striving to protect their library. Bartos said the committee has 3,000 signatures asking the board to keep the branch where it is and they can get more. To make repairs and maintain the branch was estimated at approximately $9 million, compared to the $12 million to build new.

PLYMC Strategic Communications Officer Michael Stepp said the recommendations are just that — recommendations. The Master Plan is not yet set in stone.

“It is very important to understand that the plan is a set of recommendations presented to our Building & Sites Committee and no decision on projects has been made or will be made until the board thoroughly reviews the plan and decides which recommendations to implement,” he said. “The board has not made a decision on the Poland Library.”

The remaining branches also had recommendations to renovate and reclaim space. Recommendations included conservative prices and aspirational costs. The aspirational costs came in as follows: Boardman at $1.4 million; Campbell at $100,000; Canfield at $1.6 million; East at $900,000; Michael Kusalaba (West Side) at $2.7 million; Newport (South Side) at $5 million; Sebring at $4.9 million; Springfield at $350,000; and Tri-Lakes at $550,000, for a total of $21.2 million. The full plan can be accessed at libraryvisit.org/plymc-master-plan.