New Moran Prairie Library exceeds hopes

Steve Peck, president of Friends of the Moran Prairie Library, says the new Moran Prairie Library is beyond the group’s wildest dreams.

“We’re all very excited about it. We’re so used to the storefront library that it just never occurred to us that we would have something that was so open, and architecture that’s attractive to look at and not just functional,” said Peck.

The new 8,200-square-foot library has triple the space and materials as the old library at Cedar Canyon Village shopping center.

The $1.6 million facility also has a 100-seat meeting room for library programs and community use; a landscaped outdoor seating area, including trees saved during construction; an outside drive-through book drop; and self-checkout and self-holds pickup stations.

Over the past four years the Friends of Moran Prairie Library have worked on several fund-raisers, and they’ve saved more than $8,000 for multimedia equipment.

Peck said this money has paid for a new projection system, a sound system, DVD player and VCR. Over the next few years they will raise money for a multimedia podium.

“People in the community have been wonderful, volunteering their time, resources or money,” said Peck.

“I think this is where we’re going to transform from trying to build the library to work to complement the programs.

“We’d like to do more things with the community, with kids and seniors to make use of the space, and tap into our talents and things we like to do that involve people rather than fund-raising,” said Peck.