By Joe Anuta
One northeast Queens library opened this week while another closed for renovations as part of a massive, decade-long capital improvement push in the borough.
Lawmakers and community members gathered to welcome the new Mitchell-Linden branch of the Queens Public Library to Flushing Monday.
“The new library brings the community a beautiful environment for reading and learning, plus expandable space to accommodate future needs. It has more of everything our patrons want and need,” Thomas Galante, president of Queens Library, said in a statement.
The new facility is at 31-32 Union St., about three blocks from its previous spot. The new space features more computers, a state-of-the-art checkout system, around-the-clock check-in as well as desk spaces with power outlets for those bringing laptops and a new area specifically designed for teens, the library said.
The brand new, $6.2 million facility is opening just as the Central Library announced it will be closing the Fresh Meadows branch Oct. 12 for renovations, which are expected to last until 2014.
The two undertakings are part of Queens Library’s push to modernize its entire stock of aging infrastructure, according to Galante, who also testified before a City Council hearing on libraries Monday before the Mitchell-Linden ribbon-cutting.
“Queens Library is in the midst of the largest capital improvement and expansion plan in its 100-plus-year history,” Galante said. “Over the past 10 years, we have expanded, upgraded or modernized two-thirds of our community libraries.”
The largest projects in the pipeline include a $28 million new facility for the yet-to-be developed Hunter’s Point South mixed-use project in Long Island City, a $28 million replacement for the Elmhurst branch and a new $25.6 million building in Far Rockaway, according to the library.
But the nonprofit has been undertaking millions in other renovations and upgrades across the borough.
This push to upgrade is thanks to more than $300 million in capital dollars that have come from the mayor’s office, the state and state lawmakers along with Queens’ City Council delegation over the last nine years, according to Galante. The single biggest contributor to library expansion, however, has been Borough President Helen Marshall, who has allocated about $120 million over the last 12 years.
While the flow of capital has been robust, the city has been slashing the institution’s expense budget over the same period, leaving many of the borough’s gleaming, new facilities struggling.
“Capital allocations have enabled us to continue to make facility improvements, even as our operational funding has shrunk,” Galante told the Council.
This year preliminary budgets threatened to slash expense-side funding by $30 million, which Galante said would have been “devastating.”
All the money was restored to match 2013’s numbers, but it still left the institution with $17 million less than it had to work with in 2008, according to a library spokeswoman.
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
