Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave's On the Ground Kalamazoo series.
 
KALAMAZOO, MI — Establishing a permanent home for the Northside Neighborhood’s only public library will be a long but worthwhile process, area residents learned at the first of two town hall meetings.

“We are just getting it started,” said Arvin Delacruz of architectural design and project planning firm Abonmarche Byce. He and other project planners say they are excited about the prospects for finding and outfitting a new location for the Alma Powell Branch Library.

But the timing for the close of the library branch, which had been located inside the Douglass Community Association building for 39 years, was a sore spot for some. It closed last January without much advance notice. And the length of time it will take to build a permanent new home was a sore spot for another.
 
“What about the kids?” asked Mattie Jordan-Woods, the former executive director of the Northside Association for Community Development. “… The question has to be asked to the community: Do they really think that the kids who are reading below grade average, that they can wait five to seven years to have access to information and education?”
 
Al JonesAbout 35 people attended the Oct. 29, 2024 town hall meeting at NACD.Library planners said a temporary location for the branch will open soon at 308 W. North St., but no decisions on a permanent location are likely until mid- to late-2025. Nnamdi Dike, head of Finance & Budget for the Kalamazoo Public Library, said it is likely to take at least four years to have a permanent location up and going. That will occur after more public input and data are compiled, suitable land is located, financing has been negotiated, regulations have been satisfied, and construction work is finished.  

Representatives of Avonmarche Byce, along with representatives of the Kalamazoo Public Library, met with Northside residents at a town hall meeting on Oct. 29, 2024 to answer questions about the project and to allow the residents to provide input. The gathering was held at the 612 N. Park St. offices of the Northside Association for Community Development. About 35 people attended.

A second town hall meeting was scheduled for Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 at Lincoln International Studies School, 912 N. Burdick St.

The representatives provided highlights of a September survey of community residents, discussed design possibilities, and provided a rough timeline for the planning and work that needs to be done to establish a permanent location. A temporary location is expected to open in mid- to late-November, they said, in a recently renovated, 1,700-square-foot building formerly owned by NACD at 308 W. North St.

"We have plenty of comments for all sorts of features," said Gregg Jones, senior project architect with Abonmarche Byce. "There's programs that people would like to see provided by the library."

He said survey respondents also said they would like to be able to walk or bike to the library, so that reflects a need for a location that is close to a majority of the area homes.
 
Mattie Jordan-Wood, former executive director of the NACD, left, speaks with the Kalamazoo Public Library’s Jarrod Wilson and Ida Robinson at the Oct. 29, 2024 town hall meeting at NACD.Jordan-Woods peppered the representatives with questions about the decision-making surrounding the project. And she argued that there has not been enough input from neighborhood residents.
 
“How can you have a diagram (of possible interior facilities for the new branch),” she asked, “when you all promised that we would have regular input — and I’m not talking about a survey that went to all of 49007.”

She said the area code includes many people who are not Northside Neighborhood residents.
 
Michael Cockrell, interim director of the Kalamazoo Public Library, said, “Decisions have not been made. We have not designed anything. Those are ideas. Those are concepts that are informed by the survey, yes. But this is also part of the process.”

Al JonesMichael Cockrell, interim director of the Kalamazoo Public Library, speaks at the Oct. 29, 2024 town hall meeting at NACD.Delacruz, an architect and programming specialist with Abonmarche Byce, said planners need to use data that they have gathered in three meetings with community members, as well as the September survey of about 300 people to determine what size building and interior facilities need to be incorporated in the branch library. The planners said they anticipate the need for a 1.5- to 2-acre property on which to build a library building of perhaps 10,000 to 12,000 square feet. It should also be able to have parking for 25 to 40 vehicles. But those are nothing more than estimates, he said.

"My main concern is the youth and the access they have to the library on the Northside," said Orlando Little Sr., a Northside resident and father of seven adult children. "When I visited the library frequently it was very useful to the youth in the community."
 
Al JonesNnamdi Dike, head of Finance & Budget for the Kalamazoo Public Library, speaks at the Oct. 29, 2024 town hall meeting at NACD.In particular, he mentioned, "I'm thinking of the kids from Interfaith Homes, who used it the most that I remember. And (youngsters) from the surrounding areas in the community."
 
Jordan-Woods worried that youngsters from that government-subsidized housing complex (just north of the library branch's longtime location at the Douglass Community Association, 1000 W. Paterson St.), as well as those from the nearby Summit Park Townhomes & Apartments, and Fox Ridge Apartments, need a location within walking distance.

Patricia Plair said she is concerned about re-establishing the library branch because it was a place that helped her six adult children find success.

“All of my kids grew up going to the Powell Branch on Patterson Street,” she said. “And I think it’s important that the kids that live in the Interfaith Homes have a place to go where they can learn and grow.”
 
Arvin Delacruz, of the Abonmarche Byce firm, talks about planning fro the Alma Powell Branch Library at an Oct. 29, 2024, town hall meeting at NACD.Speaking of young people who live in the area now, she said, “Taking it out of the Douglass (Community Association) was a terrible thing for them because they didn’t know what was going to happen and it happened fast.”

Plair said it has been their go-to place for books, research, and computer use.
 
“It’s important that every neighborhood has a library because that’s where the growth and learning comes from,” she said. “All of my kids are college-educated. Some of them have master’s degrees. But they all started at the Powell Branch Library.”
 
Little said, "We already know that reading scores are down in our public schools. So to offer that stability of books being readily available in a nearby location, for pedestrians, walk-in students, or the community at large is very important to the growth of our community and the success of students that have the disadvantage at this current point until we build a new one."


Alma Powell Branch Library has deep cultural roots in Northside.

The Alma Powell Branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library got its start in 1969 when the Kalamazoo Board of Education approved the establishment of a library room inside Lincoln Elementary School (now Lincoln International Studies School at 912 N. Burdick St.) According to information provided by the library, the library room was staffed by volunteers and was intended to be a place to study, providing books on African-American culture, and books of interest to the surrounding community.
 
The Friends of the Library and the Kalamazoo Board of Education named the growing branch in memory of Alma Powell, who was a well-known storyteller for children. A lover of books, she joined the KPL staff in 1946 and worked at Lincoln School and the Eastwood Branch Library until her death in 1967.

The Alma Powell Branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library is expected to open soon in a temporary space at 308 W. North St.In 1971, the branch was relocated to what had been the location of the iconic Van Avery Drug Store at 702 N. Burdick St. The drug store, which was completely renovated, had been picketed during the civil rights unrest of the late 1960s for refusing to hire African-Americans.
 
In January of 1985, the branch was relocated to the Douglass Community Association building at 1000 W. Patterson St. to be more centrally located among neighborhood residents.
 
"We were within walking distance of the Alma Powell Branch and that was one of the coolest things that I thought about when we moved," said Roxanne Everbearing, who relocated to the Northside about two years ago with her two young sons, ages 4 and 7.
 
She said, "I share the frustrations of a lot of people in this room where I don't feel like there has been the feedback loop and the community engagement that should be part of this process."
 
She said she believes the library branch lost its location inside the Douglass Community Association building because the Kalamazoo Public Library was renting about 3,000 square feet of space there — rather than controlling the fate of the location as an owner. She said she is excited about the prospect of the KPL branch in its own new permanent location.

Library access is vital to thriving
 
Speaking of helping young people to find better lives, Jordan-Woods said, “We’re talking about education being the key, home ownership being the key, and training being the key. How are you going to go study to train anywhere and there’s no facility there so you can do research? This is truly about priorities for the education of Black, Brown, and poor White youth. That’s what it’s about.”
 
She said young people need access to research and information in safe places where they can thrive, “even when their homes are not thriving.” She said, “And all of us are responsible (for making sure that happens).”
 
Dike said the Alma Powell Branch closed at the Douglass Community Association as that association was implementing new security rules that require patrons for its educational, artistic, musical, human service, and athletic activities to sign in and identify themselves in order to enter. By law, public libraries are prohibited from requiring people to provide identification to enter. Dike said the idea of creating a separate entrance to the library branch there was dropped after research showed that library patrons would lose about one-third of the space in order to accommodate the necessary changes.
 
Jordan-Woods questioned the decision, saying that may have been the favorable choice in the short term compared to the small temporary library that is being established.
 
Little said, "It gives me great concern just like everything else with our school system and our reading scores across the county. So as adults, we need to put our best foot forward to collaborate to talk about the problems and the issues and see how we resolve them together for the benefit of the students that need it the most.”

He also said there is a need to help adult learners.

“Everybody needs the advantage of having access to literature and books,” he said, “and the support system that the community and the library have.”