Thursday, August 26, 1999
Theater land offered for roomier library
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ST. BERNARD — This community wants to trade land for books.
The city bought the vacant Andalus Theater building on Vine Street earlier this year for $200,000 and razed it last week at a cost of $63,000.
“Now, we've gone to the Public Library (of Cincinnati & Hamilton County) and said, basically, that we would like to turn the land over to them — give them the property — for a new branch library,” said Ray Schrand, city service director.
“The St. Bernard branch (behind City Hall on Tower Avenue) is so tiny that a bigger branch library is our first priority for this site,” Mr. Schrand said.
The theater was built in the 1930s in the heart of the community's business district at 4828 Vine St. Most recently, the building housed the Crown Life Ministries church.
Amy Banister, the library's public relations head, said that while a top priority is improvement of the library's branch system, the theater site — a third of an acre — “is really too small to build an improved branch library ... and improve services enough.”
Without more land for a larger building and parking, library officials “are (not) going to consider it for an expanded branch,” she said.
Parking lot proposal
Mr. Schrand said he is aware of the limited parking and plans to approach the St. Bernard Eagles club, which owns the parking lot behind the site, to try to broker an agreement to use the lot. The city would provide incentives to the Eagles such as paving the lot for library use.
Reaction to the proposed branch was generally positive.
School nearby
“If I want to take my class there (to the existing branch), it's so small, so tiny. Our media center here (at St. Bernard Elementary School) is bigger,” said Carolyn Maschmeyer, who teaches fourth- through sixth-grade social studies. The school is about a block from the branch library.
“We could use a larger collection (of books and materials). We could (assign) a lot of research for projects there,” she said.
“I like to take my classes to the library because a lot of kids today are so computer-oriented, they will not go to the library and they don't realize libraries have so much to offer. We want them to use a variety of resources,” said Ms. Maschmeyer.
Jim Thomas, superintendent of St. Bernard/Elmwood Place Schools, said the library has provided classroom copies of books and programs, but a larger branch library would be a welcome addition to the community. “I think our students would get a lot of use out of it,” he said.
Maria Beach, 28, a St. Bernard resident, said she intends to return to school and would welcome the library for schoolwork.
Other priorities?
However, Debbie Geers, 42, who saw four children graduate from St. Bernard schools and has two others still attending them, said there are better uses for the old theater site.
“They really need something for the kids ... to give them something to do — recreational things,” she said. “Maybe a teen center or club or another theater.”
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