Ground-breaking ceremonies for the new Perry Hall Library took place Thursday, with the building slated for opening early next year.
The 25,000-square-feet building at 9685 Honeygo Blvd. will house 125,000 items and have just one level, which will be more accessible to the handicapped, according to librarian Barbara Hoddinott. Estimated cost of the new facility, which will feature a drive-through window, is $6.4 million.
“The county has been leasing the current facility,” in the 9400 block of Belair Road, “since it was constructed in 1963,” Hoddinott said. “It?s an aging facility, and the new property, which will be a certified-green building, will be owned by the county.”
Hoddinott said that with the move to a more densely populated area, the library is expected to increase both its customer base and business level.
Library administrator Robert Hughes added that there are 17 libraries in the county and that over the past 30 to 40 years, they all have had some degree of renovation.
“But nothing large like the construction of a new facility,” said Hughes, who mentioned work a few years ago at the Lansdowne and Loch Raven buildings.
“The new Perry Hall library will incorporate the absolute best thinking available in the library world as far as making them accessible and useful to the public.”
The Perry Hall Improvement Association, which has supported erection of a library since 1999, announced during the ground-breaking that the organization pledged $1,000 in a challenge grant toward the new facility.
