The Springfield City Library Web site offers up meeting notes in a steady stream emerging from the work of a steering committee tasked with figuring out a new location for a Mason Square branch library.
Mason Square’s former fire station, vacant for 20 years
Dunbar Community Center on Oak Street
A list of possible sites has been whittled down to a manageable number. Volunteers and city employees are taking on the job of investigating the potential of each. According to notes from the most recent meeting on February 5, the sites and follow-up volunteers include:
Mason Square Fire Station (Ben Swan, Jr.)
Dunbar Community Center (Emily Bader)
Wilbraham Avenue site adjacent to MCDI (Ryan McCollum)
AIC joint college/public library (James Morton)
Property between Early Childhood Center and Rebecca Johnson School (Mary Worthy)
A flower garden plot on Wilbraham Avenue at MCDI, seen here as part of a September 9, 2006 Bike Springfield garden tour organized by Springfield-based Gardening the Community
AIC’s James J. Shea Library on State Street
Rebecca Johnson Elementary School on Catharine Street
Also of note, at the February 5 meeting, city planner Scott Hanson was present to tell the group that the city doesn’t have a specific definition of the boundaries of the Mason Square neighborhood. The notes state, "[Hanson] pointed out that the actual square, the plaza in front of the fire station, is the convergence of four neighborhoods—McKnight, Bay, Old Hill, and Upper Hill."
The steering committee meets next on Monday, February 26, 5:30 pm at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, 3 Rutland Street. The meetings are open to the public.
