After an extensive and robust public planning process asking the Xenia community as well as the larger Miami Valley community what THEY would like to see (and would patronize) in the Xenia Carnegie Library, by July 30, 2017, the tabulations were in! Over 269 ideas were generated by the public from the series of "votes" during the Carnegie Make a Wish Campaign. These priorities were taken into account via the weighted voting process and presented at the 3rd and final Public Meeting Input session at the downtown Xenia Library. The ideas were gleaned from the "I wish this were a....campaign," as well as the online campaign, and results from previous meetings. As presented at the August meeting, the top uses the architects were instructed to further develop into the top three concepts along with a conceptual probable costs budget were:
1. Arts/Culture (by far and away!)
2. Museum
3. Food and Library/Research (tied for third)
Training and Education
Three development options were presented at the final meeting on October 11, 2017. The final schemes took into account the top desired usages of the public, but combined in different ways with an eye toward the guiding considerations of this process. The desire for a free and open to the public component (at least SOME of the building), the desire that the final usage relate somehow to Carnegie’s mission of education and literacy for the community, and sustainability were top considerations in addressing this adaptive reuse. Total cost estimates were from $2.2 to 2.4 million with the higher figure including a full commercial kitchen.
Read the final options presented at the October 11th REVEAL meeting.
Read some comments below on this public input process: