Library to host public review of HQ plans

Plan is ready to submit to the borough architectural review board MILFORD — Library officials announced Wednesday that Pike County residents will have an opportunity to review progress and plans for the new Pike County Public Library (PCPL) headquarters. The informational public meeting will be held on Thursday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., in the courtroom of the Honorable Joseph Kameen, in the Pike County Courthouse in Milford. The meeting, hosted by PCPL Board members, staff and members of the Library’s all-volunteer building committee, will follow a format similar to the Library’s May 2007 public session, also held at the courthouse. During the Oct. 23 meeting architect Fred Schwartz will present current plans for the new library headquarters and its community center, including landscape and small business resource center plans, both of which are a direct result of community input. PCPL Building Committee Member Ed Brannon will moderate the Oct. 23 session. “This project has been driven by the desires and needs of the citizens of Pike County from its inception,” says Brannon. “From the late Dorothy Warner, who saw the crying need for a new library and made the initial gift that jump-started the project, to the literally thousands of citizens who participated in the focus groups that determined the parameters of the new facility, served on the jury to select our design, made contributions, both in-kind and in amounts ranging from $10 to $100,000, and signed our petitions to the Governor for funding, Pike County residents have made this project work. As we finalize the scope of the project, we want the public to know and understand the process, and to have a chance to give us their ideas yet again.” Plans for the new library headquarters have been altered significantly over the past year to reflect input from the community and a series of informal workshops held among members of the PCPL Building Committee, the Milford Borough Council and the Architectural Review Board. The PCPL plans to submit a formal application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to the Architectural Review Board, and is hosting the Oct. 23 public meeting to provide Pike County residents with an additional opportunity to make suggestions and ask questions. In addition, library staff and volunteers are participating in an ongoing series of meetings with community groups, from Taxpayers United to school PTA groups, to ensure that all facets of the Pike County community are included in the process. To schedule a meeting with your community group, please contact Library Director Ellen Schaffner at director@pcpl.org or 570-296-8211. The library particularly thanks Judge Kameen for once again allowing the use of his courtroom for the Oct. 23 meeting. One of the many needs that the new library headquarters will fill is the lack of a large public meeting space anywhere in the community. In addition to being the PCPL’s point of administrative outreach that will provide upgraded library services to every part of Pike County, the library’s new headquarters will serve as a community center with space to accommodate important meetings of groups such as the county literacy program, or cultural events such as the Black Bear Film Festival.