Johnson County Library is in preliminary talks with Prairie Village to possibly relocate the Corinth branch a few blocks north on Mission Road to the city’s civic campus.
City leaders announced at the Feb. 17 Prairie Village City Council meeting that Johnson County Library is considering the space currently occupied by a small community center in front of city hall as a new Corinth branch location.
A parking lot just to the south of the current city hall, near Harmon Park Skate Park, is also a contender, according to officials.
This comes more than a year after the city council killed a plan to co-locate a new YMCA-operated community center and a new Corinth Library branch near the municipal pool. That left up in the air the fate of the beloved library building, which was built in 1963.
Elissa Andre, the marketing and communications manager with Johnson County Library, told the Post in a mid-February interview that it is still too early to know if the Corinth Branch will remain in Prairie Village. The library board has been looking for new potential locations in and outside the city.
Talk of potentially moving the Corinth branch to the civic campus comes as Prairie Village is on the verge of starting work in earnest on a much-debated new city hall just south of the current municipal complex.
Following the Feb. 17 city council meeting, Andre confirmed to the Post that the library board has heard about this municipal campus site as a potential option.
“The Library Board is supportive of our staff exploring with the City whether this concept could be palatable to both entities,” Andre told the Post in an email last week. “This is only a first step in a conversation that still has many details to be determined, but it is a new option for us to consider.”
Watch the city council’s Feb. 17 discussion on Corinth Library online here, starting at 55:43.
“The infancy stage”
City Administrator Wes Jordan told the city council that city and library leaders have discussed co-locating a new Corinth Library branch on the municipal campus.
The two sites the library is considering are the community center at 7720 Mission Road, which is currently used for police department training, and the parking lot near the skate park.
“Their board is encouraging their staff to work with our staff to see if this is a real possibility, is it feasible,” Jordan said. “We’re in the infancy stage, but once we have a more defined prospect that they may want to locate here … then we need to have a conversation.”
Both potential sites mentioned for a relocated Corinth branch would be adjacent to a new city hall.
The city is gearing up for a $30 million project that will result in a brand new city hall at 7820 Mission Road, on the longtime site of Mission Road Bible Church, and an upgraded police department and municipal court at the current municipal complex at 7700 Mission Road.
Jordan said if a partnership with the library comes to fruition, “the timing couldn’t be better for that” because all the construction, for a new city hall and new library, could happen at the same time.
Mayor Eric Mikkelson said at the city council meeting that he believes Johnson County Library values walkability near its branches.
Mikkelson said he thinks that the proximity of the civic campus — including city facilities, Shawnee Mission East, a public pool and a park — to a new potential Corinth Library makes these city plots attractive to the library system.
“That’s, I think, a big part of why they’re intrigued — not yet committed — but intrigued with this location, so more to come,” Mikkelson said.
Corinth branch will be a new building
Andre told the Post that the library board is currently discussing new locations for a Corinth branch replacement.
While the existing property at 8100 Mission Road is still in consideration for a completely rebuilt Corinth Library, Andre said, the footprint makes it difficult to add all of the features Johnson County Library wants to offer.
These new features include more study rooms, a drive-thru and other amenities patrons see at newer library locations such as Merriam Plaza, Andre said.
“The existing site is still in play, absolutely, but I think if we could find a site that could accommodate all those things a little bit better then we would want to do that,” Andre said.
If the library finds a new location for the Corinth branch, Andre said, then the existing location can remain open through construction with no interruption to library services.
Still, Andre said that no action has been taken at this time regarding the future of Corinth Library.
More details are expected to come later this year
- Andre said the library hopes to start the hiring process for architects and designers in the second half of the year.
- The library board is “narrowing down the field” for the future of Corinth Library, she said.
- Andre said the library board has already allocated the funding for the rebuilding of Corinth Library, with no need for additional taxpayer dollars.
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