Selling off city property is just one of the many ways Evanston Public Library is funding its plans for improved facilities and youth programming.
Officials are tapping numerous resources ,including city funding, book sales and privately raised contributions to raise the money necessary for the $2.4 million project.
“It’s a very complex plan,” said Neal Ney, the library’s director. “There are more funding sources for this plan than for any other city program.”
The fundraising efforts will include dividing the building that houses the North Branch. The gift shop Perennials, 2022 Central St., pays rent to the City of Evanston and is adjacent to the North Branch Library, 2026 Central St. To raise money, the city will sell the Perennials property. The North Branch space will remain under city ownership.
Library officials have been discussing the plan for about a year. Administrative Services Manager Paul Gottschalk predicted the sale would occur by the end of 2006.
Ney said the campaign’s fundraising goal is $400,000. Library officials are expecting about $300,000 from the property sale.
The first $200,000 raised will go to the youth services program. Most of this amount will be used to overhaul the children’s room in the Main Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.
Any additional money will go to the North Branch and South Branch, 949 Chicago Ave., for facility improvements, Gottschalk said.
Library officials plans to double the size of the children’s room and create specific sections for different age groups.
“It’s really kind of a change in the concept of how the children’s room is,” Gottschalk said. “There will be a much more distinct area for preschoolers, then early elementary, then late elementary and then teens.”
Ney said the renovations will incorporate elements typically found in a children’s museum.
“It will create a livelier, more colorful, interactive space,” he said.
If more than $200,000 is raised, the additional money will be split between the North and South branches and spent on features such as accessibility, bathrooms, ventilation, lighting, layout and furnishings.
Gottschalk said the goal is to make both branches more welcoming to patrons. While there is a long list of needed improvements, the number that can be undertaken depends on the amount of money raised, he said.
North Branch Manager Connie Heneghan said she supports the property sale because the branch will receive funds for capital improvements.
But she said she would have preferred that the North Branch receive additional space instead.
“It will have a positive effect – not the same positive effect that more space would have had, but a positive effect,” she said. “I’d rather have the space, but I understand the city can’t do that.”
Reach Angela Chang at [email protected].
