By Andrew Abel

Delaware State News

DOVER — Atop the agenda for Tuesday night’s Kent County Levy Court meeting was a presentation by the city of Dover outlining its plans to build a public library.

The Community Services Committee, chaired by Commissioner George W. Sweeney Sr., heard Dover’s plans to erect a library along Loockerman Street between City Hall and the Post Office.

Dover Public Library Director Margery K. Cyr said the current library, which was built in 1961 and expanded in 1987, no longer meets the needs of the public.

It has more than 38,000 registered users, 20,000 of whom are from outside of Dover, she said. The number of visitors in December increased by 1,077 over December 2007.

The new library will serve as Kent County’s "anchor" library, meaning it would be the largest and have longer hours, more staff and more space for meetings and conferences than other regional and community libraries, Ms. Cyr said.

The new library would have four times the seating of the current one on North State Street, she said. There will be 60 computer stations, triple the current number, and wireless Internet free to anyone who wants to bring in a laptop, Ms. Cyr said.

There will also be a computer lab and business center offering job skills training and educational classes to members of the community, she said.

There will be a 150-seat multi-purpose room near the lobby, Ms. Cyr said. It can also be separated into smaller rooms and the building would be zoned so that the multi-purpose room will be available at times when the library is closed, she said.

Ms. Cyr said that it is important to provide a place where people can come to read and study.

"The public library is a cornerstone of the community," she said.

The new library is about 75 percent through the conceptual planning process, she said, and the schematic design should be finished by March, giving planners a more solid grasp of the size and cost of the building.

Originally, the building was going to be 52,000 square feet, but due to shortfalls in the $18 million budget, the size was trimmed to about 46,000 square feet, Ms. Cyr said.

For several months, the various committees involved in planning the construction of the library met with local residents and the architectural firms in charge of designing the library to get an idea of the wants and needs of the public, she said.

"We even held a teen meeting where children told the architects what their perfect library would look like," Ms. Cyr said. "The ideas given by the children will be incorporated into the teen center and children’s room of the new library."

One issue commissioners were concerned with was parking. While Ms. Cyr said the building would be designed to maximize parking, Commissioner Allan F. Angel said the new library will sit on top of what is now a parking lot. Ms. Cyr said the post office may be relocated, freeing up parking space for the library as well as the downtown area.

Commissioner Angel encouraged the city of Dover to consider utilizing green technologies while designing the new facility.