The Rant offers an early look at the nearly complete, $24 million new Lee County Library, which will more than double the size of the previous building and offer more programming, resources and events for Sanford’s fast-growing population.
By Billy Liggett
The number of books available was never the problem for the current (soon-to-be-old) Lee County Library on Hawkins Avenue near downtown Sanford. There are plenty of books, even if they’re a bit crammed in there.
The issue with the old library — and the reason the county has put millions of dollars into building a new one — has always been space. Space for programming. Space for meetings and study groups. Space for local art displays. Space for children to explore. Space for the library’s annual PhenomiCon (formerly Pop!-Con) event.
The new $24 million Lee County Library — a 34,000-square-foot state-of-the-art structure nearing the end of its construction phase along Bragg Street (next to O.T. Sloan Park and across from Lee County High School) — more than doubles the space of its soon-to-be predecessor. Set to open this spring, less than two years after the Lee County Board of Commissioners approved the bond package to make it happen, the new library is long overdue for a rapidly growing community still catching up on adding “things to do” for young people and community resources for all ages.
“Books are the bread and butter of all libraries, and ours is no different,” says Beth List, director of library services. “But it’s the programming we can offer and the personal relationships we create with our staff that really make us a vital part of this community. Knowing you are welcome to come here whenever you want is important. The library is one of the last free spaces remaining where you can’t be turned away at the door, and we thrive on that. And now we’ll be able to offer so much more.”
The current library is scheduled to close on March 28, and the new facility will have a “soft launch” in mid-April. Before that, List and her staff provided The Rant with a sneak peek of the new facility — about 90 percent complete — on Feb. 20.
MORE ROOM FOR EVERYONE
Samet Corporation and Sanford Contractors joined to break ground on the new library in November 2024 based on the approved architectural designs from Raleigh-based Vines Architecture. As for Feb. 20, most of the work to be done (prior to moving furniture and equipment in) was cosmetic — painting, light fixtures and other design touches with a little over a month remaining before the official “move-in date.”
List’s tour starts behind the scenes in one of the many rooms missing in the current library on Hawkins Avenue — the staging room for the building’s curbside window. The old library has offered curbside service (under a small outdoor tent) for several years, but now customers can pick up and drop off books and other materials much like at a pharmacy drive-through or a bank teller window. There will still remain a 24-hour drop box, but the window will allow customers to ask questions without getting out of the car.
Down the hall and still out of sight from the public area is the library’s dedicated outreach room, where the staff can stage books and resources for community engagement events like pop-up events, potential “bookmobiles” or partnerships with schools or community centers. Again, this is an area that doesn’t exist in the current library and its roughly 19,000 square feet of space.
List says the majority of the work done in that building is behind the circulation desk, and there is little “functioning work space” available. Offices built for one director house up to three people, and several employees lack their own desk.
“More offices and more dedicated staff space was much needed,” List says. “The new building will have meeting rooms and even a small kitchen. These additions will make a huge difference for our staff who have made the best of it with little or no space for too long.”
Walk through the door from the staff area, and you enter the spacious lobby of the new building, with tall, angled ceilings; large, round light fixtures and much more open space to move around than currently afforded. The biggest difference — aside from the sheer size — from the old library is the amount of natural lighting shining through, illuminating everything with little need for electric light. The small skylight in the Hawkins Avenue building has been replaced by tall windows on all sides of the new facility, providing a more positive, modern feel.
“We want this library to be welcoming if anything, and I feel like the architects and the builders have done a great job with it,” List says. “More lighting in general makes this a more functional building morning, noon and night. Our current library gets too dark in the evenings, and it’s just not as great an atmosphere as we’d like.”
The first room presented in the public area is one of the smaller ones — a sensory room that will be outfitted for those who prefer to study, read or work with less lighting and fewer sounds. Near there is a dedicated story room — another new addition — for children’s programming when the weather outside isn’t as inviting.
And it’s children who will possibly benefit the most from the new library as to the right of the information desk will be an entire wing dedicated to children’s books. The youth services librarian will have an office accessible from the wing, which will also lead outdoors to a gated, rubber-surfaced play area. The children’s wing will also have easily accessible tutoring rooms and access to family restrooms.
“We love that people can walk into the main doors and head straight for the children’s department and not have to deal with the rest of the library if they don’t want to,” List says. “To be able to have people come in and have their own spaces to feel comfortable and welcomed is big, because right now we’re kind of smushed into the main library space we’ve got now, and we’re kind of on top of each other. The teens didn’t have a dedicated space when I came over in 2017, and we added that, but it’s still out in the open.”
The teen wing in the new library also excites the staff. With its location on Bragg Street, the new library will be within walking distance of Lee County High School, Lee Early College and Central Carolina Community College. When high school lets out at 3 p.m. each day, students will now have a short five-minute walk to the new library where they can relax indoors, study, do their homework, check out a book or play video games on the PlayStation, XBox and large flatscreen in the new teen area. There will also be at least six desktop computers and iPads for public use. A dedicated librarian will be nearby to help set up meetings, study groups and other teen-focused constructive activities.
“We’re aware of our location, and there will be a door to just this section that teens can access after school,” List says. “Again, they don’t even have to go through the main library to get here — we want them to feel like this is their space. We’ll have team events, gaming competitions, crafts and more. I’m really excited about this space, because we simply don’t have anything like this now.”
The information desk under the large circular lights will be the first thing most people see when they enter the new building. The desk will house the public-facing circulation staff, and there will be three new self-checkout areas (gone are the days when one had to scan each book to checkout … this area will allow for multiple books to be entered at once).
As for the books, the number of them isn’t expected to grow much, if at all, once the move is complete. The current library has no shortage of books — they’re just not presented in a very easy-to-find, user-friendly way. The new building will make hunting down books easier, and there will be more displays for new books, popular books or whatever theming the staff chooses (such as children’s books about blue whales or books for Black History Month).
“There’s no standard for the number of books in regards to a library’s size,” List says. “We’re not increasing the collection size, but what we are increasing is our community space. The study labs, the meeting rooms and just the areas where we can have events and programming — it will mean so much.”
Being able to find books more easily and having the covers of more books visible will make the number of books checked out rise, says library assistant Hunter Randolph.
“People see a full book shelf with only the spines outward facing, and they become overwhelmed,” he says. “It’s harder to search and just scan to find something you might like. We’ve found that when we’re able to space the books out more, circulation goes up in those areas.”
Which leads to the adult (or main book) section, which will be located behind the information desk and to the left (not far from the teen wing). In addition to fiction, non-fiction and other categories of books, this large area will be home to more computers, more quiet areas, more charging stations and more overall space.
An area the team is particularly excited about — another new space — is the makerspace room made possible by a $50,000 gift from Kyowa Kirin, the Japan-based pharmaceutical company currently building a $530 million biologics manufacturing facility in Sanford. The room will house 3D printers, sewing machines, possibly laser cutters and other public equipment for people to simply “create.”
“It gives people an opportunity to try something new and learn how these things work before they go out and purchase it themselves,” says Kate Munn, who runs the library’s community engagement, outreach and programming services. “They can do it all here before spending a ton of money on a new hobby.”
The outdoor spaces of the new library have also been designed to be more welcoming. The building is surrounded by tall pines and is a stone’s throw from O.T. Sloan Park and its pickleball courts and dog park. There will be more seating and more grassy areas and much more parking — a far cry from the small concrete lots the old library had to share with a nearby church.
“It was my dream to have a library in the woods,” says List, “because I felt this spot was in a very good place for access, but also felt like a ‘destination space’ where people can come and relax. I think people are going to feel at home here, and I’m excited to share it with them.”
MEETING THE NEED
Lee County has been talking about a new library for over a decade, but the ball finally got rolling toward the end of the pandemic when in early 2022, government officials met with architects and contractors to develop a plan for what they hoped would be a new 30,000-square-foot building (it would eventually become 34,000 for a very specific reason).
The county called for public input in March of 2022 and developed a survey for residents to provide feedback about the design. Two years and five months later, the Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 to approve a $28 million bond to not only build the new library, but also purchase and install radio equipment for emergency responders (which tacked on a few extra million dollars).
That vote came just two years after the board approved $25 million in bonds to finance Lee County Athletic Park, located just two miles away along Broadway Road near the U.S. 1 Bypass. The area between the two new additions represents some of the most visible growth in Lee County over the past few years, with the new Marelli Lennar subdivision and the upcoming Ashby Village subdivision that will feature 250 single-family homes, 200 townhomes and 350 apartments.
In 2023, the commissioners came together to agree on a final design adjusted for inflation, yet still able to meet the majority of the needs for the library staff. The board was presented with cost-cutting options that would reduce the number of wings, reduce the size of outdoor areas or consider cheaper building materials. Commissioner Cameron Sharpe argued that no shortcuts should be taken.
“This building will be a centerpiece for our community, and I feel about it the same way that I do about the sports complex,” Sharpe said then. “I don’t want to do either of them half-way. I’m 59 years old and this may be the last new library I’ll ever see, so I want it to be a good one.”
The board eventually voted to keep the original design and added $6 million to the project from its reserves.
“The size was developed to fit the programs and when we bring students to the library, we need a space that really wows them,” then-Commissioner Bill Carver said before the vote. “We want this one to be special, and coming up with the extra money, in my opinion, would be the way to go.”
The commissioners will certainly benefit from the new building beyond the books and programming. The eastern wing of the facility holds a large multipurpose room and stage that will house future Board of Commissioners and other county meetings, and that wing — which can be closed off from the library and remain open past regular library hours — will also have its own restroom facilities, a kitchenette and smaller meeting rooms for other community organizations.
Nearby, the Friends of the Library will also have a dedicated room for that organization’s book sales and other needs.
“The stage area will be completely outfitted with sound equipment and monitors,” List says. “The room can hold up to 250 people, and if there’s more who show up, there’s an outside room with a TV monitor where the meeting will be broadcast. It’s a much larger, more user-friendly space than what they have now.”
The new facility will also be much more capable of hosting large events, such as the library’s annual PhenomiCon (formerly Pop!-Con, but they piggybacked the name from Hugger Mugger Brewing’s similar event because of a trademark issue with the previous name).
“It will be a takeover — the entire property, inside and out, will be dedicated to that event in August,” List says. “We’re excited to have it here.”
Community response to the decisions that have led to the new library have been overwhelmingly positive in public meetings and in the comment sections of stories about the process. In one of those meetings, Broadway resident Virginia Strucinsky, a retired schoolteacher, praised the decision to expand.
“A library is very, very important,” she said, “and we really cannot let the education of our whole population fall behind. We certainly need this new library, and we are so happy that the board of commissioners is in favor of this and leading the way for the rest of us.”
During her time at the podium, Strucinsky argued against the notion that libraries are just for children.
“Working people need to keep up with the times,” she said. “There are so many new things coming on the market that cause our intelligence to keep increasing daily. And our senior citizens, who have enjoyed all the wonders of our libraries for decades, are now discovering that the new resources we can find there can take us anywhere, regardless of where we might be now in this life. This new library is a smart investment for Lee County, and we all thank you for it.”
If there has been a common complaint about the project, it’s been about the location. The current and nearly former library is located on Hawkins Avenue, just a block away from the heart of downtown Sanford and more easily accessible for many who don’t have transportation options. The new building is just under three miles away from downtown — roughly a 50-minute walk.
List says the library has been in talks with the County of Lee Transit System (COLTS) about a “buzz line” to and from the new location, and the library plans to ramp up its outreach programming to bring the library to more people. “We’re always looking for pockets of need to make sure we can reach people where they’re at,” she says. “We’ll never stop giving up on that, and we’ll continue to expand that outreach.”
AT LONG LAST
The process of planning, presenting those plans, preparing and now waiting for the new library — all while making sure the current building is fully staffed and meeting the community’s needs — has been a grueling one for List and her staff. On Feb. 20, the staff was a month and eight days away from closing down the current library and beginning the process of moving into the new one. That was just under two months from the planned “soft launch” of the new facility.
All of this is coming very soon. And the staff is ready for it.
“I was here for the groundbreaking, but this was already a vision and everything was already planned when I got here,” says Munn. “But I’m grateful that I’ve been able to see these plans and this vision come to life, and it’s been really exciting to see the progress. What I’m excited about most is having multiple programming areas — to be able to do so much and not have to do it all in one space is going to mean so much for our staff and our community.”
Randolph says the words “when we get the new library …” were tossed around so much when he started, that it became a running joke among the staff. Those words carry more meaning now, with the new library just weeks away.
“It feels very strange to be at this point,” says Randolph, who joined the staff in 2022. “We’re just weeks away from starting the move, and it’s a very exciting time for us. Speaking selfishly as someone who spends most of his time working in the back, I would say I’m most excited about having more dedicated staff space and more office space. I think that’s one thing patrons don’t necessarily see or think about when they visit the library — the workspace I currently use is shared with three other people, and that used to be a break room. Everybody else is sharing office space originally designed for just one person. The ability to just have space to do our jobs is going to be really nice. We’ve been making do with what we have, but I’m excited about what’s ahead.”
Circulation Services Manager Jeremy Mullins says he’s excited both as a staff member and a member of the community: “It’s an exciting time to be a Lee County resident. To see something so nice, so beautiful and just so huge come to this community where it’s well deserved and much needed, I think this place is going to be a shining star of the county.”
Assistant Director Christopher Luettger called the process that has led to today a “satisfying” one: “We’ve been a part of all the decisions, from the rooms to the colors, and to see it all almost fully realized is very satisfying. I’m just excited to share it with everyone else.”
And for List, the excitement is twofold. She’s thrilled to have the space her staff needs to serve the community, and she’s ready to show the community what they can do in this new facility.
“When I started here, people told me we’d never see a new library,” she says. “Some would say, ‘Nobody goes to the library anymore.’ That’s just not true. The growth that we’ve seen at our current location has been enormous, and our circulation, our visits and our programming keep going up. What we’re going to be able to do with this space and offer this community … it’s going to be incredible.”
WOW