Architect Rob Remark of JLG Architects talks with Carol Krabbenhoft.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

A steady flow of enthusiastic Moorheaders streamed into the Moorhead Public Library last week to find out more about plans for the new regional library and community center to be built downtown – and to cast their votes informally for the features they’d most like to see.

“This is the first step,” architect Rob Remark reflected. “We want to gather ideas from as many types of people as possible – oldest to youngest, all walks of life, all the kinds of people who live here. Whoever you are, we want to hear what you would like to see. We need to listen and understand.”

The open house featured displays laying out the process and asking questions: What do you enjoy most about spending time in the library? Would you come to the new community center and public library to stay physically active? What will bring you to the library with children? If there was outdoor space associated with it, what features would you use most often?

Another board described the process, beginning with this pre-design phase – expected to continue through the end of July.

“We’re not actually drawing now,” Remark said. “We’ve been meeting with the Lake Agassiz Regional Library board, Friends of the Library, the city parks and recreation team and others, as well as Roers Development about the site itself.

“Now we’re looking for input from the community in every way we can think of.” That includes not only one or two more open house events yet to be scheduled, but presentations to groups like the Human Rights Commission and tables wherever folks gather – the Farmers Market, the Senior Center, events at the parks and, he says, “wherever people gather.”

And if your schedule doesn’t include any of those, you can also share your thoughts in an online survey. You can find it by going to www.cityofmoorhead.com and searching for “community center.”

JLG Architects, whom the city council engaged to design the center, was joined last week by three representatives of the firm with whom they are partnering, Miller Hull of Seattle, a specialist in similar civic undertakings.

After ideas have been gathered and evaluated, the project will enter the second phase, the schematic design phase, this fall. Another partner will enter the process in August. Called a “construction manager at risk,” that individual and company will be selected by the City Council in coming days; its call for proposals closed last week. They will become what Remark terms a “pre-construction partner,” with an eye to keeping the plans fiscally responsible and “focused on the performance of the building for years and years to come.”

Construction firms will be invited to bid in February 2024, with an eye to breaking ground next spring. At this point, completion of the new center is slated for the end of 2025.

Mayor Shelly Carlson, who originally spurred the concept of a joint community center and regional library, is excited about the enthusiasm residents have already shown for the project … evidenced by the overwhelming support last November of the city sales tax that will fund it. “I’m so enthusiastic about what this will bring to Moorhead. We want it to include something for everyone,” she said.

She emphasized the many opportunities for residents to share their thoughts in coming weeks at public events as well as online. “We want – we need – to hear from you. This is going to be our community living room. We want to be sure we’re building a place where people are going to want to go and spend time together.”