Plans for the new community library center include more space for children’s activities like Storytime. (Photo/ Moorhead Public Library)
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
It’s a dream for downtown Moorhead – a new public facility at the heart of the city that will combine two needs – a new home for the Moorhead Public Library (and its parent, Lake Agassiz Regional Library) and something Moorhead has never had before, a community center to host gatherings and activities for young and old.
“This is going to be the catalyst for redeveloping downtown Moorhead,” Mayor Shelly Carlson declares enthusiastically. “It’s going to serve our citizens in multiple ways and be a magnet for private developments.
“But before it can take shape, we need to hear what Moorhead residents want to see there.”
Two “listening sessions” will be conducted by the 11-member task force she appointed last September to shape the proposed facility to fit the city’s needs. The open house-style gatherings in the Center Mall are scheduled from 4 to 7 p.m. in the Center Mall, with child care available. Task force members include Cani Aden, Greta Almlie, Lisa Borgen, James Hand, Sajid Ghauri, Doug Greenley, Oliver Judd, Shane Kvalevog, Karla Solum, Nick Woodard and Danielle Wright.
The “listening sessions” are billed as opportunities for Moorheaders to share their notions of what can, and should, be included in the community center portion of the project. An indoor playground for kids, perhaps with some kind of climbing facility? A splash pad? An arboretum to brighten dark winter days? A pleasant, sun-soaked walking track for all ages?
More meeting rooms are a “given.” Carlson notes that a block of flexible, spacious meeting areas is integral to the plan, meant to be shared bu the library and other community organizations. The limited space now available at the library is heavily booked by all kinds of entities, from the Boy and Girl Scouts and Moorhead Friends Writing Group to civic candidate forums hosted by the League of Women Voters. Besides more, and more flexible, AV-enabled meeting rooms, the new spaces might contain a public teaching kitchen, areas for artists and makers, and even a studio for podcasts.
Carlson points to the popularity of West Fargo’s Rustad Recreation Center as a model. While the proposed Moorhead facility will have fewer sports options, the spirit of that facility – activities for young and old, spaces for learning and entertainment – offers a vision of what Moorhead’s community center could provide.
“I wish we’d called it the ‘community-library center’ from the start to help people keep those opportunities in mind,” she concedes. “Now’s our chance to consider the possibilities – all the possibilities – of how it can become a vibrant, exciting focal point of our community.”
She concedes that not everyone who will be voting on the new facility is familiar with the library’s urgent needs. “Not everyone uses the library, though it is essential to a large part of our community. The community center offers something for everyone.
“The possibilities are wide open. We want to listen to people’s ideas and let the best ones bubble to the top.”
