<\/p>\n
Board votes to relocate Poland Library<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County board of trustees has officially decided to relocate the Poland library branch following a special meeting on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
The board also approved the purchase of the property for the project near Denver Drive, provided the land is up to the board\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe felt we had to make the right decision based not only on finances, but on long-term programming and so forth, actually for a new generation,\u201d said board member Robert Frost, who voted in favor of relocation.<\/p>\n
The board previously ordered an investigation to determine if the branch should stay at its South Main Street location or move to a new site.<\/p>\n
The board brought a motion to vote for renovation, but it failed.<\/p>\n
The relocation proposal faced opposition from Poland residents and the Poland Village Council. Local leaders recently passed a resolution asking the board to keep the library in its current building.<\/p>\n
At the meeting, the board heard 10 public comments in favor of renovation to the Poland Library, which included statements from the Mahoning County Commissioners and State Senator Al Cutrona.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m bitterly disappointed, I thought we had a chance, I thought we had some momentum going,\u201d said Poland Village Councilman Chris Graff after the meeting.<\/p>\n
Canfield resident John Yerian says he believes the board\u2019s decision to relocate against the wishes of the community will make it harder for future library levies to pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisappointed, not just for the Poland branch or the community of Poland, but for the overall library association,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Library system estimates show a new building would cost between $6.4 million and $9.6 million. Renovating the existing branch is estimated to cost $7.6 million. However, library administration officials said long-term maintenance costs over 30 years would be about $5 million higher for a renovated building than for a new facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the next time we have this discussion, we want to make sure we are thirty years down the line,\u201d said President and CEO Aimee Fifarek.<\/p>\n
Mahoning County commissioners previously expressed support for keeping the library at its current site.<\/p>\n
As of now, there is no timeline for when the new library will be completed or what will happen to the current Poland Library building.<\/p>\n
Fifarek tells 21 News that the Poland Library will continue to offer its services for at least another year as plans for relocation develop.<\/p>\n
More information on the relocation will be shared as it becomes available.<\/p>\n
Download the WFMJ app for your Apple or Android smartphone or tablet to get our push alerts as news happens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Board votes to relocate Poland Library The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County board…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3544,3361,9,2579,2578,3542,2932,1661,3541,3543],"class_list":{"0":"post-4307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-poland","8":"tag-library-board","9":"tag-mahoning-county","10":"tag-poland","11":"tag-poland-library","12":"tag-poland-village-council","13":"tag-public-library","14":"tag-relocation","15":"tag-renovation","16":"tag-youngstown","17":"tag-youngstown-and-mahoning-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}