Miami Herald, 11.02.08
BY EILEEN SOLER
Almost a decade after Broward voters overwhelmingly said yes to higher taxes for more libraries, the deal is nearly done.
Today, 27 projects are finished. That's out of the 30 promised by the Broward County Libraries Division since March 1999, when 75 percent of county voters approved spending $139.9 million. The bond issue was specifically to build new libraries and improve older ones.
The three projects that remain are in various stages of planning and building.
''Within the first year of the referendum we brought libraries out of the ground,'' said Cecil Beach, bond project coordinator.
The projects aimed to renovate time-worn facilities, expand tiny libraries, replace decaying structures, build new libraries in areas where none existed and meet the demands of new technologies.
The first new library to open its doors as a result of the bond was Southwest Regional Library in Pembroke Pines, which opened in 2000 at Pembroke Pines Academic Village on Sheridan Street at 172nd Avenue.
The facility was Southwest Broward's first regional library to anchor the tiny Weston, Davie/Cooper City and Pembroke Pines branches and provide advanced library services for the area's 300,000 residents.
The next year kicked off work in earnest for more projects. Beach said more than half of it was marked for new facilities; the remainder would be ``retooled.''
In February 2001 Northwest Regional Library, a 72,000-square-foot building in Coral Springs, opened as a joint-use facility with the city and Coral Springs Charter School.
Later that year, the Galt Ocean Mile Reading Center in Fort Lauderdale was expanded, and the Dania Beach Paul DeMaio Branch Library and Weston Reading Center were moved into larger facilities.
The years that followed brought steady demolition, renovation and rebuilds -- and a few surprises.
Beach said West Regional Library in Plantation, built in 1978, was on the upgrade and expansion list until a closer look proved the work would not be worth the cost.
''When architects and engineers said everything -- plumbing, wiring, everything -- had to be brought up to code, it was cheaper to build a new library. So we did,'' Beach said.
Meryll Cohen, head of West Regional's youth services program, said operations continued as usual while the new building was constructed just across the parking lot.
''The old building was musty, dark and small. Every day we'd peek out at the construction and be so excited to watch the new building go up,'' Cohen said.
When all was moved into the new space and the old building demolished, employees took bricks for souvenirs. A tiny park stands where the old library was.
Cohen, a 30-year veteran librarian, remembers a few of the county's earliest libraries.
Pembroke Pines library was squeezed into an old home -- the reference department was a walk-in closet.
Miramar's library was nothing more than a few rooms connected to the city's water plant. And South Regional was housed in an old Winn-Dixie.
The Broward County Libraries Division, established in 1974, grew to 35 locations by 1999.
''When the bond issue came up, voters knew we had a chance to make things even bigger and much better. We're fortunate that South Florida is a library-oriented community,'' Cohen said.
Beach said money from grants, donations and municipal, educational and corporate partnerships help augment costs.
The Tyrone Bryant Branch in Fort Lauderdale and Miramar Branch Library are the latest to open.
The Bryant branch, which replaced an aging 28-year-old building, opened Sept. 4. The Miramar library, a joint project among the city, Broward College and Nova Southeastern University -- both of which are housed in the building's second and third floors -- opened Sept. 25.
Broward Libraries Director Robert Cannon said at a celebration to mark Miramar's opening day that he is looking forward to the final three projects.
''That will do it for the next 30 years,'' he said.
Construction is now under way on a 10,000-square-foot Lauderdale Lakes Branch Library that will feature a second-floor, city-operated community education and cultural center. A branch library and cultural center project are in the design stages for Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill.
And plans for a new Sunset Strip Branch Library will be drawn as soon as city leaders agree on a location.
''Overall, the entire plan is moving pretty rapidly for 30 projects in this span of time,'' Beach said.
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