‘Brick signing’ marks beginning of new Huber Heights library
City officials, library leaders, residents and other stakeholders endured the area’s first major heat wave of the year Tuesday afternoon to commemorate the groundbreaking for the Dayton Metro Library’s new Huber Heights branch.
The 27,000-square-foot building, which will be the second-largest branch in the Dayton Metro Library system next to the Northwest branch, is the last structure that will be built with money from a $187 million bond levy passed by voters in 2012.
Attendees at Tuesday’s event had the opportunity to sign their names on bricks that will be used in the construction of the new Brandt Pike location.
“We’re here today to celebrate the construction of the new Huber Heights branch library, which is the capstone project of the Libraries for a Smarter Future systemwide facilities upgrade,” said Dayton Metro Library Executive Director Jeffrey Trzeciak, who thanked the voters for making the new “state of the art” libraries possible.
“I know you had to wait patiently while we found the right location for this particular branch, and we did,” Trzeciak said. “The site is going to be more visible and more easily accessible for our patrons and we’re pleased to be an anchor in the redevelopment of this priority area in the city of Huber Heights.”
This library will be one piece of a construction boom around the former Marian Meadows shopping center
just north of Fishburg Road. A new senior center and a $40 million housing development are both in the works around that property.
The Huber Heights branch will have a variety of meeting rooms and program spaces, including a large community room with both beforeand after-hours access, Trzeciak said, along with a conference room, seven study rooms, an enclosed quiet reading room, a children’s area, dedicated teen space, and an area for “casual gatherings.”
“They saved the best for last,” Huber Heights Mayor Jeff Gore said Tuesday before highlighting the new library’s inclusion in the city’s Brandt Pike efforts.
“The Brandt Pike revitalization project has been a very key focus point for myself and city council for many, many years,” Gore said. “With the library planning the final stages of getting the last library here, we knew location was extremely important, and it just became this perfect marriage that the city would
invest the dollars to acquire this space to make sure that the library had a location that they didn’t just want to be at, but where they were excited to be.”
The Dayton Metro Library system consists of the main library on East Third Street in downtown Dayton and 16 branches, including the soon-to-be built Huber Heights building, which is estimated to be completed in spring 2023.