Baltimore County officials broke ground on Wednesday on a $4.18 million expansion and renovation of the Pikesville Senior Center and Library, kicking off one of the most extensive facelifts of a county-owned service building in history.
The project ? which will add 3,500 square feet to each facility plus a 1,500-square-foot fitness center ? is the first since the community center that houses both was built in 1982, officials said.
The project is the most recent in a series targeting older Beltway communities and will help accommodate the needs of the 30,000 customers who visited the library last year and the 1,200 senior center members, officials said.
County Executive Jim Smith joined about 150 Pikesville residents at a ceremony Wednesday, where he called libraries the “souls” of communities.
“This community has come to and enjoyed and supported the library ever since it came to be,” Smith said. “Downstairs you?ll get your intellect and upstairs you?ll exercise your body. You?ll be a whole person readyto rock-and-roll for another 50 years!”
Library improvements will include a new entrance, children?s activity center and storytime room, two express checkouts, magazine lounge, enlarged area for large-type books and new checkout and information desks. Improved teen space, new lighting, shelving and carpeting, restrooms are also planned.
In addition to the senior-friendly fitness center, a new entrance, lobby, lighting, expanded class rooms and a renovated woodshop will be added to the senior center.
The Reisterstown Road center will remain open during nine months of construction, with some minor inconveniences expected. Senior center member Renee Zimrim said she had to find new locations for her quilting class, but said the nuisance is worth it.
“Have you ever tried to find a parking space here?” Zimrim said. “It?s extremely busy. We?re very excited.”
County Council Member Kevin Kamenetz, D-District 2, described the center?s history in brief “chapters,” from its birth to expansion. He took creative liberties with the story?s ending, however, predicting life after the expansion is complete.
“All of Baltimore County lived happily ever after,” he said.
