Schenectady, N.Y. — Schenectady County Legislators have approved a resolution to build a 4,000 square foot Branch Library and Family Literacy Center at 954 State Street. The new facility will be the first project to be built at a one-acre site on State Street that is currently vacant.
The land is currently owned by the City of Schenectady. The City IDA and Metroplex are working with a private developer to buy the site from the City for $120,000. The private developer has agreed to donate a portion of the land to the County for the library facility.
Future commercial development is also planned for the site.
Gary Hughes, Chairman of the County Legislature’s Committee on Libraries and Education and sponsor of the resolution said, “Schenectady County has a terrific library system including a recently expanded and renovated downtown library. As part of our Library Action Plan, we are also improving our branch libraries. We are very grateful to the Library Board of Trustees for partnering with us to build this new library branch and family literacy center on State Street. The Trustees commitment is the made possible by the very generous bequest of Phyllis Bornt.”
Phyllis Bornt was a retired librarian who left a major gift to the Library to be used for branch library upgrades.
Mayor Gary McCarthy said, “We are very grateful to the County for its commitment to build a new 4,000 square foot facility on State Street and we recognize the generosity of the Phyllis Bornt bequest. The City is selling the site where this project will be built on State Street to the City IDA for $120,000 which is an excellent deal for City taxpayers.”
The Schenectady County Legislature approved a Capital Budget amendment for the $450,000 county share of the project at its meeting Tuesday night. The Library Board of Trustees are proposing a $400,000 commitment to the project and the City Council will consider the land sale to the IDA for $120,000 at a future meeting.
Once the new facility is completed, the County will close the Duane Branch at 1331 State Street and the branch currently located at the Carver Community Center. Both facilities lack adequate space, parking, handicap access and other amenities needed to host a modern branch library and literacy center.
The new family literacy center is designed to be used by families and children. There will also be programs for job seekers who need to upgrade literacy skills to find employment. The focus on literacy is part of a community-wide effort involving the County, City, City School District, private foundations and others to equip every member of the community with solid reading and writing skills.
Other library branches include Woodlawn and Mont Pleasant in Schenectady, Glenville, Scotia, Niskayuna, Delanson and Rotterdam. The County just recently completed a renovation of the Mont Pleasant branch library.
The new site for the library/literacy center is a one-acre vacant lot. Metroplex funded environmental testing that showed the site was clean and ready for development allowing the City to sell the lot to the City IDA for the project putting the site back on the tax rolls.
The County is also applying for State funding to help support the library project.
For more information about the Schenectady County Library System see www.scpl.org.