Arvada – Groundbreaking ceremonies on Wednesday for a new library meant much more for Olde Town than all the speeches and flying dirt.
Since launching a revitalization effort six years ago, the historic area around Olde Wads worth Boulevard and Grandview Avenue has blossomed with wide, brick sidewalks, pots of flowers, and new businesses and restaurants, and about 700 apartments and condos nearby.
But missing from the mix was a community cornerstone. City officials said Wednesday that despite some controversy over the initial design, the library will draw the community together.
“Have we pleased everybody? I don’t think so,” said Councilwoman Lorraine Anderson. “But this will improve civic life of the city, it will improve library services, it will provide better access for schools, and Olde Town also will flourish.”
The two-story public library on Olde Town Square will offer community meeting space, more computers and an Internet cafe when it opens in the fall of 2006.
More books will fill the 30,000-square-foot red-and-sand-colored building, which will be three times as large as the current library, leased from the city at West 57th Avenue and Dover Street.
The Jefferson County Library System will pay for the $9.9 million facility with a 20-year loan. Also contributing to the library are the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority, city of Arvada and Jefferson County.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
