Greene County’s Spark Place has been used by everyone from Air Force Research Lab engineers making quick 3-D printed heads for testing pilot helmets, to kids making homemade Christmas presents for their families.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to who benefits from (the makerspace); it just works for high-minded stuff like next-generation aviation ergonomics, all the way down to ‘I want to make candles for my Nana,’ ” community information coordinator Evan Scott said.
The money will pay to move the makerspace to the first floor of the Xenia library and expand the available floor space for patrons to use the equipment. Currently, the two combined makerspaces on the second floor of the library measure about 1,100 square feet. The renovated makerspace will be 1,500 square feet, with “stretch space” for programming up to twice that.
The move will give the makerspace greater visibility to the public, and give library staff better space for training.
““It can get pretty elbow-to-elbow,” said GCPL Director Karl Colón. “Many people who come to the library don’t know what it is or are surprised by it, and by putting it out on the floor we encourage people to use it.”
The $500,000 makerspace project is part of a larger update to the library on East Market Street. Last year, the library spent $2 million on the core infrastructure of the building, including fixing the roof and modernizing the HVAC systems. Additionally, further renovations would open up the floor plan, and increase the amount of natural light in the library, which includes replacing old steel tornado panels with modern weather-proof glass.
Built in 1978, the library was last renovated over 20 years ago, and has had at least a couple million visitors since then, Colón said. The total renovation hasn’t yet been bid, but the current estimate sits around $8 million, as construction costs have doubled.
“We are building the airplane as we fly it,” Colón said. “Every day we sit in this inflationary environment, every dollar is worth less. The taxpayer doesn’t expect me to get less, they need me to get the value of their dollar. And in this case, that means speed.”
Greene County has been “quietly” updating its libraries for the past few years, he said, Xenia being the last and biggest of these renovations. Most recently, the city of Fairborn awarded the library an ARPA grant to create a mural on the outside of the city’s library downtown.
“Looking at the building writ large, by the time we’re done, it will be bright, it will be open, it will be flexible,” Colón said. “At a time when construction costs are spiraling, working together with partners like the commissioners to do everything we can to make sure every dollar works for the taxpayer is critical. The commissioners very gallantly jumped right in, so that’s a big deal for us.”
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