The city’s Lincoln branch library and its popular toy library reopens Monday after major renovation – and extensive construction delays.
“That's been hard to navigate, you know ... understanding construction schedules,” said Patricia Uttaro, director of the Rochester and Monroe County public library systems. “But also emotionally, because, you know, we want the library to be open.”
The $2.1 million project was supposed to take four to six months and be completed in February. Instead, the Monday reopening arrives just one week shy of a year after the Joseph Avenue branch closed for the renovations.
But step inside and the space looks not just different, but bigger. Much bigger. The renovation opened up the space, removing walls and dividers, adding windows, repainting the ceiling from black to white.
“It just makes it feel like it is doubled in size,” said Brie Harrison, the library system finance director.
“Yeah, it really does,” added branch supervisor Sarah Lehman. “Even being here throughout the whole process, I'm still like, ‘Are you sure we didn’t?’”
There is a small area carved out for the little kids, and a small door leading to a secret space for them to play. And for anyone who has visited the library in the past, there is also more parking, with a new lot opened across Avenue D.
The big thing for kids and parents, though, is that the popular toy library will now be open Monday through Saturday, the same hours as the library. And there’s another change: The toy library is no longer walled off from the rest of the library, requiring additional staff to supervise it. Now the children’s section flows from books to playthings.
There was laughter as Lehman and the other library leaders walked through the nearly finished space on a recent weekday. Staffers were back “home,” as Lehman describes it, and busy reassembling furniture, arranging the space and re-stacking the shelves with the roughly 75,000 items (including toys) that are in the branch’s collection.
But this has been a journey.
Project costs increased only slightly, despite the volatile construction market. This, despite what records show were numerous change orders, big price jumps for glass and other materials, and extended three- to five-month delays for delivery of seemingly basic items like doors.
Toward the end of the project, an intense rainstorm caused a small flood.
When it comes to the contractor delays, city officials say they will be assessing potential damages and legal options once the contract is complete. But for now, Lehman is eager to open the doors.
This is the largest of the city’s branch libraries and was the branch most in need of repair. The Lincoln branch is at the corner of Joseph Avenue and Avenue D, in a neighborhood with a lot of poverty and a lot of kids.
Vera Haygood is the library assistant who handles the teen services. They call her Miss V, and she has a lot of regulars at Lincoln.
But over the past year, few of them made the mile or so trek from the Joseph Avenue branch to the temporary satellite location at the city's Pamela and Trenton Jackson recreation center on North Clinton Avenue.
“Not many at all,” Haygood said. “But they definitely are waiting for us to open back up because this is a staple in the community, and they enjoy being here.”
It’s the books and the programming. The free Wi-Fi. Its access to copy and fax machines. And one of the largest collections of Spanish language materials in the county, serving the highest population of Spanish-speaking populations in the city.
This is the first major renovation — or reconstruction — of a city branch library in 15 years. Maplewood is next. That is an even bigger project, with an addition expanding the branch by roughly a third.
Lincoln Branch hours:
• 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
• Noon to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday
• Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday
