SCRANTON, Pa. -- Less than a year after a major renovation project wrapped up, more improvements are planned for the Lackawanna County Library System.
The building that houses the Lackawanna County Children's Library in downtown Scranton is more than 100 years old. Within the last few years, improvements to the roof and air conditioning system were made. Now, the new year is starting off with the approval to do even more renovations to the library.
The Lackawanna County Children's Library is starting off 2019 the right way in the next year. It will get nearly $66,000 worth of improvements to the outside and the inside, thanks to county commissioners.
"The building was built in 1915, and it was built as a church, so it's in regular need of repair as any 100-year-old building would be," said Mary Garm, Lackawanna County Library System.
Some of the improvements will include making access to the front entrance easier, repairing the floors, and upgrading the bathrooms.
"That makes me so excited to hear," said Erin Joyce of Scranton. "That's wonderful because I already feel like the library is already a wonderful place to come to, so to hear that there's improvements, it just makes things even better."
Employees at the children's library say the thick doors are heavy even for adults to open, the new ones will be geared more towards children.
"We have little children who come into this building and the doors are wonderful antique doors and they're quite heavy. They made them heavy in those days."
County commissioners approved the funding to improve the library that already features so much history of the city of Scranton and all of Lackawanna County.
"That was actually one of the first things I noticed when I came to the library," Joyce said. "I loved seeing all of the different sceneries of being able to see the Cultural Center and the Times building."
"We're really just delighted with this. We're anticipating that the work will start fairly soon, but we're trying to work it out in such a way that it won't disrupt service any more than it needs to, so it won't happen at one time. It will take several months before the work is done," Garm said.
Library officials say the only time the library will need to be closed is when they are repairing the floors, and then it will only be for three or four days. They don't have a timeline but say they hope all of the upgrades will be completed over the next year.