A shuttered Fort Worth library with strong ties to the surrounding community has revealed plans to reopen sometime in 2023.
The Fairmount Community Library in Near Southside is seeking community-backed support to help accelerate planned renovations and its eventual grand reopening later this year, according to the Fort Worth Report.
Located at 1310 West Allen Ave., the Fairmount Community Library has been a cornerstone of community activity since it first opened in 2010. Prior to closing its doors for renovations in 2019, the library had offered a variety of family-friendly activities besides books, including Scrabble nights, food drives, poetry nights, and live music.
While renovations to the library were originally meant to be completed a few months after starting, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the renovation process and ultimately stalled the reopening, according to Alicia Bohannon, board president for the Fort Worth-based library.
The library has an annual operating budget of $20,000, so the board does not have unlimited resources to work with, Bohannon said, according to the FWR.
To ensure the library remains an indispensable part of the community, local nonprofit organization Near Southside Inc. created a PayPal fundraiser with a $4,000 goal aimed at accelerating the library’s grand reopening. So far, the fundraiser has met nearly half of its $4,000 goal.
As the PayPal fundraiser inches closer to meeting the library’s financial target, public support for the library only seems to grow stronger, according to Bohannon. Although the library has been shuttered for a number of years, she said the local community has always been there to shine through with their support.
“I think we were really able to do some pretty amazing things, particularly because whatever we were doing, it seems like, we always had the backup of the neighborhood,” said Bohannon, per the FWR. “It was almost like every time we put something on, between the volunteers and the community … it wasn’t really costing the library that much money.”
It is not just Bohannon who wants to see the Fairmount Community Library return. Neighbors also want to have the library back, said David Weuste, director of communications for the Fairmount Neighborhood Association.
“Fairmount does not have a library within walking distance, and as the city continues to remove libraries from within neighborhoods. There just aren’t these sort of free, public spaces where communities can come together,” Weuste said, per the FWR. “So, we’ve seen residents asking what’s needed to help bring this resource back to life pretty much since it was forced to close.”
If Near Southside Inc. is able to achieve its $4,000 fundraising goal, Bohannon said the library would open later this year with a revamped subscription model for access to check out the library’s more than 600 books.