Speer Library Renovation Near Completion

Kaitlin Bell The Monitor

MISSION — Speer Memorial Library capped a $3.5 million, two-and-a-half-year renovation project with a re-opening ceremony Tuesday evening, even as some finishing touches remain. The building’s overhaul, part of a capital improvement project that also included a new city hall, public safety building and fire substations over the past several years, began in November 2003. It was mostly financed with $3.5 million in city bonds, in addition to some private contributions. The project tripled the library’s size to more than 48,000 square feet, up from about 18,000, and increased its computer inventory to 250, from about 100. That makes the building bigger and longer than a football field and the largest single public library in South Texas — at least until McAllen completes a vast, multi-story structure currently in the planning phases, said Library Director Rusty Dove. "Brownsville says they’re a little bigger, but I have it on good authority — which is their acting director — that our actual square footage is greater," said Dove, smiling as he discussed the library one-upmanship. "So for a little while, we can lay claim to that." The expanded building has been open to the public since last June, but until now patrons were confined to the northern addition as computer stations were expanded, including 50 laptops in a teaching lab. Those computers are now up and running, and in coming weeks staffers will transfer the fiction section to now-empty shelves in that area, Dove said. Even though not fully complete, the facelift seems to be attracting patrons. If people continue to frequent the facility at the same pace for the rest of this fiscal year, the library’s visit tally will stand at about 350,000, up from about 214,000 in the previous year, according to the library’s numbers. Eduardo Martinez, a long-term patron who was checking e-mail and paying bills at one of the library’s computers Tuesday, said he’s increased his visits to about two or three a week since the new, renovated portion opened last June. The 10-year Mission resident said he’d likely attend the reopening ceremony that evening. "They say it’s the largest structure [like this] in South Texas, so that’s pretty cool," he said. Anticipating the ceremony Tuesday afternoon, a custodian dusted ledges near some private study rooms, while outside two city streets employees made sure the library’s old wooden signs stood straight on the corner of East Ninth and Mayberry streets. The blue and white painted signs might seem a little out of place next to the library’s new, orange stucco façade, but Dove is still gunning for a new placard. As the library’s longest-serving director in its 92-year history — he assumed his position in 1990 — he has patience. "That’s still to come, like the office furniture," he said, referencing the flimsy tables that some staffers are temporarily using. "It’ll be there."

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