The Geauga County Public Library has found a new site on Park Avenue for its Chardon branch and hopes to close on a purchase agreement for a portion of property owned by Bridle Downs, LLC by the end of October.
The Geauga County Public Library has found a new site on Park Avenue for its Chardon branch and hopes to close on a purchase agreement for a portion of property owned by Bridle Downs, LLC by the end of October.
Last year, GCPL announced it would no longer be feasible to have a branch on Chardon Square, as necessary upgrades would push the building past its property line into land owned by Chardon Schools. When Chardon Schools Board of Education rejected a sale of that land — which is used as play space for children at Park Elementary School — last October, GCPL Director Kris Carroll said the branch could move to a new location.
In an interview Sept. 20, Carroll said both the GCPL board and the property owners had signed a $1.2 million purchase agreement, which she said was a good deal for the library.
GCPL is working with the seller and the city to split 20 acres off of the existing 26-acre lot.
The remaining acreage contains one dwelling, which the Geauga County Auditor’s Office lists at 5,682 square feet.
“It became clear we did not want to purchase houses and then become quasi realtors — that’s not our expertise,” Carroll said.
Although new townhomes are scheduled to go up on a site to the east of their spot on Park Avenue, Carroll said the sellers felt strongly they did not want their land developed for homes.
“That’s one of the reasons they were happy to work with us,” she said. “We’re a government agency, we’re a library, we serve everybody. We were sort of what they were looking for in a buyer.”
Carroll said the property, which sits across the street from a trailhead and parking lot that accesses the Maple Highlands trail, can be used in future partnerships with the city or with local parks.
However, no longer having a GCPL branch on the square will be “bittersweet,” Carroll said.
“For many years, (the library branch has) been a central part of the town square,” she said. “We explored every possible avenue to remain there, from partnering with different people to buying private homes — I can’t think of anything that we didn’t explore. Eventually, we had to make a decision to move forward.”
GCPL has set up a special website, at geaugalibrary.net/chardon-branch-news, for updates about the planned new branch.
The new building will include modern amenities, enhanced meeting spaces, improved accessibility, dedicated quiet spaces, improved and expanded parking, expanded early learning spaces and improved local history services, the site said.
Carroll said as the process is just beginning, the timeline is hard to predict.
However, a conservative estimate is the new building could open in 2027 — if everything with the sale, design and construction phases goes smoothly.
In 2017, voters approved a $24 million bond issue for GCPL to remodel and build facilities. Carroll said the library put aside some bond money — which was used for projects in Middlefield, Bainbridge and Thompson — to pay for the Chardon branch, but it will not cover the entire cost.
“We have been saving money since (2017) to do this,” Carroll said. “So, we are doing this with the expectation that we will not be asking the taxpayers for more capital funds.”
Carroll said the library is excited to be a part of Chardon’s growth.
“Every time I drive through Chardon — multiple times a week — I see something new,” she said. “I think it is a really exciting time in Chardon and it’s great that the library gets to be a part of that.”
