Northwest Side to Get Another Library As West Side Fights to Keep Branches Open

One of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Chicago will start work on a third public library next year, while two aldermen from the struggling West Side fight for funding to keep their library branches open.

Recently retired Ald. William J. P. Bank’s (36th) seven-year effort to bring a third library to his ward moved one step closer to becoming a reality last week with approval from the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals. But Ald. Emma Mitts (37th) and Ald. Ed. Smith (28th) question why a brand new, state-of-the-art library is being built in a ward that has two libraries.

Mitts and Smith say they’re working hard to bring the latest resources into their libraries, like books, databases and other services that would help put youth back in the classroom and assist adults in finding a career.

“I think adding another library would add to what we are trying to do down here – we are trying to educate our children and provide them with options and resources to excel,” Smith said of his Austin neighborhood.

For Banks, it is about following through on a promise to bring another library to the 36th Ward – a promise the retired alderman made over seven years ago.

“It is a great success, and we are all very happy about the Dunning Branch Library,” Banks spokesman John Finnegan said after the appeals board on Sept. 18 approved a slight change in the location of the library, moving it back from the road.

“It will be a great addition to this community,” he said.

Chicago Public Library Commissioner Mary Dempsey said the city of Chicago is doing everything to accommodate all 77 neighborhoods in Chicago by upgrading and building as many libraries as funding allows.

“We don’t build libraries based on wards,” Dempsey said. “We based it on service and community need – if we went by wards we would only have 50 libraries.”

Dempsey said Chicago has 79 library branches, 41 of which were built in the last 10 years. But it’s not clear what process the central library staff uses to decide which areas get a new library or get on the list for renovations.

If the Chicago Public Library bases its decision on where to build a library on the need, it would be building a library in Austin, Smith said.

“We need a new library,” Smith said noting that the one Austin Library was built in 1929 and renovated in 1979 and 1981. “I will be the first to tell you that additional money would be helpful to bring another asset to this neighborhood. We are working too hard to give the youth of this neighborhood a chance at an education and a new library would only help us.”

The Chicago Public Library is funded by the city, but when it comes to which ward will get a new library, it is based the alderman’s success in raising funds because the city gets only one grant and that has to be spilt between projects, said Ruth Lednicer, spokeswoman for Chicago Public Library.

“The aldermen quite often come to us because they feel there is a need for a new library,” Lednicer said. “But we also have to base that on circulation statistics and how well a library is used and how often it is used.”

Finding funding and proving their wards are worthy of a new library has been a struggle for both Mitts and Smith.

“I am not jealous about what other wards have,” Mitts said. “I brought the first library to this ward (in April 2006), but we have a long way to go. My focus is on the community that I am serving and how I can make this a better place to live.”

Dempsey said some would argue that it took too long to build branches on the North Side, adding “we do not slight any neighborhoods.”

Construction on the 36th Ward’s third library, the Dunning Branch Library, at 7455 W. Cornelia Ave., will begin November 2010, with the opening expected in summer 2011, Dempsey said.

The library will be built in a vacant lot that was donated by Chicago Public Schools.

In the meantime, Mitts and Smith said they will keep fighting for the money needed to open a state of the art library in their neighborhoods.