By Joe Ragusa
NORMAL – The town of Normal is planning to build a new library and a public meeting was held Thursday night to gather input.
“This is certainly an opportunity for us to, one, get input from the community to hear what they have to say,” Normal Public Library board president Jess Ray said. “To take a look at the Farr (Associates) plan a little more in detail and see where more opportunities are available, if we can fit the (town’s) needs in the space.”
The potential new library is south of the train tracks in Uptown Normal. Architecture firm Farr Associates in Chicago designed the initial plans included in the Uptown 2.0 master plan the Normal Town Council passed last year.
Joe Cleary of Normal said the meeting went well.
“I think it’s a great idea to be able to get the public’s input, as well as all the elected officials and the board members so that as the planning process goes forward, everyone has a voice,” Cleary said.
Cleary said there were a lot of issues to consider with the new library, like parking and noise from the passing trains.
Another architecture firm, OPN Architects in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, helped lead the discussion Thursday night with a land use exercise, where residents got the chance to plot out their own ideas for what to do with the proposed library site.
“It opened my eyes up to the divergent opinions that other people have. Everybody doesn’t think like me, I can’t believe it,” Sally Pyne of Normal said with a laugh. “It’s exciting for me to think about what a new library space might look like and as we move into the future, as libraries change, we need to have a community building and space that can serve a lot of different needs.”
Ray said the new library is still a ways off and the library board will continue discussing the Uptown Library concept before putting an official proposal together.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at joe.ragusa@cumulus.com.
