Anticipation is bubbling up among residents of Glen Head as the community library nears its complete transformation.
The town’s Gold Coast Library was established in 2005 following a public campaign and has been a fixture in the community for two decades. Throughout its lifespan, however, the building has been subject to criticism for its lack of parking and small size as the entire structure sits within a train parking lot.
“We opened in a small building in 2005, and pretty much from that point we realized we needed more space,” said Mike Morea, the library’s director. “We used to be closed on Wednesdays in order to be able to do community programming.”
The building, currently located at 50 Railroad Ave., has faced a space issue since its inception.
For several years, the library would have to close on Wednesdays in order to host programs as there was limited space available. This was somewhat resolved for a while through renting out a secondary location to host events and larger gatherings, but the arrangement worsened as the cost of renting the extra space began to approach $100,000 a year. With the small library’s four floors and the rented space’s two floors, the staff has been split across two buildings and six floors for two decades.
In response, a $12 million project kicked off construction in September 2023 of an entirely new building for the library, which is now slated to finish this summer.
“This project that the community approved at the end of 2020 is an opportunity to bring everything under one roof on one wholly owned by the community property with parking, with outer space. Everything under one building allowed us to continue all the services that we’ve had and continue to grow them,” Morea said.
The project has more than doubled the size of the library from its initial 4,400 square feet to 11,000 square feet on a 2.6-acre plot. The new model will come with its own community room, increased outdoor space and study room.
Friends of the Gold Coast Library is a non-profit organization designed to generate additional funds and awareness for the library, which was started by some people who originally pushed for the its creation. The group is currently selling paving bricks with engraved personalized messages that will line the outdoor space as a way of generating funds to construct an outdoor reading garden. The group has sold 65 bricks so far, and the sale of these bricks will continue beyond the completion of the new building with future engravings to allow community members to continue to leave their mark.
In a 133-to-2 April vote, the original building was sold to Little Bumble Bee Daycare for $925,000, which will turn the space into a new daycare location. The deal will be finalized once the library is moved into its new space. To maintain its central location in the town, the new library will be on 146 Glen Head Road, an eight-minute walk from the original one.
Construction on the new library is currently set to finish by July, with plans to open up to the public by the end of the summer or early fall. The library will no longer rent the secondary location for events as the new building comes with a community room that could hold 125 people and could be open separately from the library, allowing for later events. It is planned to be open to Glen Head organizations and neighboring ones for use. The new space will also include a new section for young adults.
Current discussions among trustees of the library point to a potential event in mid-summer to get the community involved to help transport the books between the buildings through a book chain, according to Morea.
Updates on the progress of the construction were posted on the Gold Coast Library website with “Mr. V Builds a New Library,” a series of photos and videos of Jeffery Vasconi, the lead children’s librarian, which pretends to build the new location. Vasconi, referred to as “Mr. V,” has been working in the library since its inception and the updates on the project were utilized as children’s activities, such as coloring sheets of Mr. V as a construction worker. More Mr. V photos at the construction site are set to be taken in the coming weeks.
“We need to get them to read early,” said Vasconi. “Yes, they have iPhones and all the technology going on, but sometimes too much screen time isn’t good for younger kids. You need to get them to read and get them interested in doing things like the programs we have at the library. The library is a good way to connect everybody with you, each community, and bring everybody together.”
The history of the Gold Coast Library has always been marked by change. Prior to the library, if residents of Glen Head wanted to visit a library, they were forced to go to neighboring towns. Attitudes toward this began to shift in 1997 as Krystalynn Kempton, a member of local Girl Scout Troop #61, started to ask why Glen Head didn’t have one of its own. This scout, along with her troop and classmates, went on to form a group advocating for a town library in a drive called Get a Library Soon, or GALS.
Rosemarie Ryba, the current vice president of the Board of Trustees for the library, was one of the troop leaders and original members of the GALS movement. Ryba described the grassroots movement as a passionate energy that strengthened among students and parents as they began distributing flyers and petitions while meeting with town officials over coffee to see what the process involving a new a library could look like. Ryba, other leaders of this group and citizens then formed the North Shore Citizens Committee for Library Service, which worked for four years to achieve this dream.
“It was really a spark that ignited everything,” said Ryba.
The movement reached its peak in Jan. 1, 2000, when a new New York State law prohibited the sale of library cards to outside residents. A resolution was finally achieved in a 2001 proposition vote with an astounding 1,399-to-315 vote that created the small library seen today, built upon land previously held by the Post Brick Company.
“Libraries are almost community centers now and they’re just not about books,” said Ryba. “It just offers the community so many things to interact, to discuss community problems and try to alleviate them. There’s just so much a library offers these days.”
