Official would like Oak Creek to begin a new chapter on library

Oak Creek - Calling the Oak Creek Public Library "woefully inadequate," Library Board President Dennis Havey said a new multimillion building is needed to meet the future needs of residents.

Specifically, Havey would like to see a 60,000-square-foot, $5 million library on the site of the former Delphi Automotive plant at Howell and Drexel avenues.

The current library, 8620 S. Howell Ave., has 14,800 square feet of space.

Havey, in a presentation to the Common Council on Tuesday night, said the new library should be financed by a public-private partnership, and he said the Library Board is already researching how to establish the Friends of the Library as a nonprofit to launch a fundraising campaign, which he estimated would take up to four years to achieve its aim.

"We're willing to do the groundwork to make this a successful campaign," he said.

Havey said the Delphi site was preferred as it would "create a new focal point."

"If it is at Delphi, it's going to be at a place where there's a lot of action," he said.

Havey recommended the Delphi site just after council members heard from a representative of Cobalt Community Research that residents were ambivalent about where a new library should be located.

The research firm's report indicated that when asked where the library and city hall should be located, the "highest level of agreement was that it doesn't matter where … as long as it doesn't impact taxes or levels of service," said Cobalt Executive Director William SaintAmour.

Yet Havey and Library Director Jill Lininger said the Delphi site was preferred as a smaller locale might mean a multistory library, which entails greater staffing and operating costs, as well as an elevator.

"One of our concerns is at the present site, there would be a higher possibility it would have to be a two-story building," Lininger said. "Two stories are much more expensive."

And Havey said the Delphi site "serves as a better central meeting place."

On Monday, the Library Board voted to undertake a fundraising campaign, and it is seeking proposals to conduct a feasibility study and hire a coordinator to help it achieve its objectives.

The library Havey and Lininger envision would have a 150-theater, a 30-person computer lab and even test kitchens and home-repair training areas. It would also be more in line with neighboring Franklin's.

While Oak Creek's and Franklin's population is nearly the same, Franklin has a 40,000-square-foot facility, - nearly three times larger than Oak Creek's current library. And Franklin bests Oak Creek in terms of print and digital collection size, and has 45 public computers, compared to Oak Creek's nine.

"I think anyone here can visualize what a nice facility that is," Havey said of Franklin's library.