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The Rock Hall branch of the Kent County Public Library is currently located on Main Street. Operations moved into a storefront property there in 2021. Previously, the library was housed in the municipal building. That building closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened to the public.

Peggy McKee, member of the Kent County Public Library Board of Trustees, presented to the mayor and council at their July 13 meeting.

“It’s been a really interesting journey for the library since the municipal building shut down during COVID,� McKee said. “We’re in a totally inadequate building, we know that, but we haven’t been able to find anything else.�

In March, Jay Silcox, president of the KCPL board, appointed a committee to find a new building for the Rock Hall branch.

“We really think the Civic Center would be a perfect spot,� McKee said. “There are so many people who come in and use the Civic Center, and most importantly there’s so many children there. You give us a chance to lure them into the library and get them started on a path of using the library from the time they’re little.�

McKee said that before the meeting, she spoke with Mayor James Cook and Town Manager Bob Resele and toured the Civic Center buildings.

KCPL would renovate and maintain the buildings it would occupy at Civic Center. McKee said the library would apply for grant funding to pay for those costs. Some of those grants would be applied for through the town.

“The big issue is, while we would like to use eventually both buildings, that’s a lot to bite off in the beginning,� she said. She added that there were a lot of unknowns about costs, especially for water and electricity.

“We think the smartest maneuver for us is to go gung-ho on the first building, get that set up, and then see if we could afford to support both buildings, because we don’t know that we could. And maybe we could, but you’d hate to do all this work and then find out we don’t have the cash to pay the bills,� she said.

McKee said the library system would focus on the block building first.

Part of those renovations would be to expand the size of the building to extend to the edge of the overhang, which would increase the building’s square footage from about 800 square feet to about 2,000 square feet, which McKee called “a nice sized building.�

“This is what we would like to pursue. Unless we can get grants, we can’t make it happen,� McKee said. “We don’t want to go ahead until we know the council buys in.�

Cook said he thought the Civic Center location “is wonderful� for the library.

Vice Mayor Carolyn Jones said she thought it was “a great idea.�

“It’s property down there that hasn’t been used for years, and I think it would be a great addition and it would be people down there. I’m like you, the children, it’s an opportunity for them to be able to be involved in the library,� Jones said. She added that the library already hosts a lot of summer programs in the Civic Center.

McKee said Rock Hall has the lowest circulation of the library systems’ three branches, but the highest participation in the summer reading program.

“We know there’s untapped potential there,� McKee said.

Councilwoman Eleanor Collyer said she thought there was a great deal of potential in the project.

Resele said the town currently pays for the water and electricity at the Civic Center buildings, and the council could decide to continue to keep paying for those costs, so the expense would not be passed to the library.

Cook said it would be good to explore potential cost sharing between the town and library to predict costs moving forward.

Jones moved to have the library take over the Civic Center buildings for their use if it was feasible. The motion passed unanimously.