Leechburg Public Library will leave school, move to new home on Market Street

It’s the end of an era in Leechburg.

For the first time in its roughly 100 years of existence, Leechburg Public Library will no longer be located inside Leechburg Middle/Senior High School.

“It’s a bittersweet thing. It truly is,” said Doreen Smeal, the library board’s secretary and treasurer. “There’s two libraries in the state of Pennsylvania that were affiliated with the school, and we were one of them.”

The library will now be located at 139 Market St., the former site of The Gifted Garden garden center and gift shop. It is tentatively scheduled to open there on Oct. 1.

“We want this to be more of a community center library then anything,” Smeal said. “I want people to feel comfortable to come in here.”

The limited hours the library was allowed to be open in the school played a big role in the board’s decision to move. It could only be open when students weren’t in school.

“Back in the day before 9/11 … when we could be open during the day, it was good,” Smeal said. “But we were now relegated to 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. four days a week in a place where there’s not great parking and it’s not well lit. It’s just not working for us no matter how hard we try to rally.”

The new tentative hours will be 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

“It will be more accessible for a lot of people,” said Karen Freilino, the library board’s president. “We’re very excited about designing it and moving forward, even in the covid era. We’ll plan things out to be safe.”

The board signed the rental agreement for the storefront on Monday. The building is owned by Ray Voyten. His business, Voytex Electrical, is next door.

“He has been so amazing,” Smeal said. “Whatever we’ve asked he’s had no problem giving it to us.”

Voyten said the move will be good for the borough, which is going to lose its First Commonwealth Bank by the end of the year.

The storefront is on a main thoroughfare, which means it could attract walkers and passerby. It also has on-street parking.

The inside has been completely gutted and upgraded. The bathroom has a ramp and is handicapped accessible.

“Everything is brand new. The electric is brand new. The wiring. The walls. The paint. We insulated everything six inches,” Voyten said. “It’s very, very easy and low cost to rent. There’s not a high gas bill or water bill or anything like that.”

In addition to paying rent and utilities, the library needs to purchase computers, tables, bookshelves, chairs and a license for the library catalogue system. All the things it previously had belong to the school.

Smeal said the library may also need to get a storage unit for inventory that won’t fit in the new space, which is smaller than the one it occupied at the school.

Everything will be paid for through fundraising, donations and some investor money that was set aside for a brick-and-mortar building. The board has budgeted $15,000 to buy everything that’s needed.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the board hasn’t been able to have any fundraisers this year.

“We had four major ones set up and they have just all collapsed,” Smeal said.

There have been small donations here and there. Some donations have come from Leechburg HealthMart Pharmacy, which is selling coronavirus masks made by Smeal for $5. All proceeds from those sales are going toward the library.

“Without them, there would be nothing else coming in,” Smeal said.

Alex Micklow, pharmacy co-owner, has known Smeal for a long time. He said helping out is the right thing to do.

“It’s a close-knit town. You take care of people who take care of you,” Micklow said.

The move comes more than a year after the library abruptly closed, setting off a firestorm of complaints from members of the community. Since then, a new library board was formed and volunteers stepped up to help keep the library alive.

It reopened in September and was doing well. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Because it was located in the school, it had to close. It reopened in July after coronavirus-related restrictions were loosened.

But it was forced to close again after the clerk quit, Smeal said.

“We’ve been closed down for a good week and a half,” Smeal said Monday.

A new clerk has been hired and will start Sept. 1.

Smeal hopes the community will once again step up to help the library — this time, with moving.

Anyone interested in donating to the library can mail checks to the new location at 139 Market St., Leechburg, PA 15656. Checks should be made out to Leechburg Public Library.