Pequea Valley Public Library keeps growing and growing and growing.
The new Pequea Valley Library branch will be located in a portion of the Family Center of Gap, under c
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Rodney Smoker (left), director of business at the Family Center of Gap, Margie Perella, director of th
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In December, the library moved out of a former one-room schoolhouse into a modern 8,500-square-foot facility in Intercourse.
And in August the library will open a 3,000-square-foot branch in Gap.
What next?
"Let me catch my breath," says library director Margie Perella.
By the end of the summer, Perella and her staff will have two libraries to manage.
The branch library will be part of the Family Center of Gap, a new family resource and counseling center on Brackbill Road. It's owned by Jonas and Anne Beiler, residents of Gap.
The Beilers' JoAnn Group plans to include a variety of services, including day care and a gymnasium and fitness center, in the $4.5 million, 55,000-square-foot facility.
The library, which will be associated with a privately operated cafe, will be the only branch library to be operated by a Lancaster County library. The Leola and Mountville libraries are branches of the Lancaster Public Library in Lancaster city.
It's big news in the library world when a modest library, half of whose patrons are avid Amish readers, branches out.
"Isn't that amazing?" marvels Mary Ann Heltsche-Steinhauer, community relations coordinator for the Library System of Lancaster County. "First there's a new library. Now there's a branch. How does that happen?"
How that happens is that the Beilers, former owners of Auntie Anne's Pretzels, decided to combine a library with a cafe on the second floor of their building.
About a year and a half ago, they approached the librarians in Intercourse and asked them to operate the library part.
"The community center concept was very appealing," says Susan Hauer, administrator of the Library System of Lancaster County. "The library will be part of what's going on in that community."
Bethany Woodcock, the center's director, explains that the center chose a public library to operate in a private building because "they can provide better services, especially with technology."
The branch library eventually will hold about 15,000 items, half the number projected for the main library in Intercourse.
"We've almost doubled our circulation figures since we opened the new building," says Perella, "and we expect to have high circulation in Gap. We are just delighted to be doing this."
This will be Lancaster County's first public library located in a private building. How will that work?
"I was very cautious about the situation at first," notes Hauer. She says the Family Center of Gap assured her it "would have no input into how the library is run."
The Pequea Valley Library Board and librarians will choose books and other materials for the branch library. Computers will be available.
Library hours will be extended because the cafe plans to open at 6 a.m. daily, including Sundays. The Intercourse library is not open on Sundays.
The Pequea Valley Library will pay for all branch services, adding a staff member to the five currently employed and extending the hours of a part-time librarian.
Initially, proceeds from the coffee shop will help pay rent, utilities and other expenses. Eventually, the Pequea Valley Library will pay those costs.
Perella points out that only about half of the library's funds come from public sources. The rest of the operating budget comes from private funding and fundraisers. If the branch's expenses rise, more money will have to be raised from private sources.
Salisbury Township's supervisors have added a $10,000 allocation for the Gap library to their $10,000 allocation to the Intercourse facility.
"The (Intercourse) library was never in our township. This one is," explains Salisbury supervisor Les Houck, referring to the Intercourse branch. "Besides, the entire complex is a great asset to the community."
Pequea Valley is not the only county library with expansion plans, according to Heltsche-Steinhauer.
Manheim Township Library plans to build a new facility by 2010. Milanof-Schock Library in Mount Joy and the Christiana and Ephrata libraries also are planning expansions.
Staff writer Jack Brubaker can be reached at jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781.
