A full-service library with similar amenities to the Main, Red Mountain and Dobson Ranch libraries is to be constructed at 5036 S. Eastmark Parkway in Mesa.
Funding for the $16.8 million project is from a general obligation bond approved by Mesa voters in 2018. The Southeast Mesa Library is expected to be completed in summer 2024.
City officials held an online public meeting April 28 to answer questions about the 30,000-square-foot library to be constructed in a vacant lot between the lake at Eastmark Great Park and the Basis Mesa charter school.
“The site is located just north of Ray and it fronts Eastmark Parkway,” Zac Koceja, engineering project manager and landscape architect, said at the meeting. “There’s a lot of residential neighborhoods adjacent to this library space. In addition to that, we are basically located in the Eastmark Great Park, which is a city of Mesa public park.”
It will service the entire southeast Mesa area, Assistant Library Director Jesse Simms said at the meeting.
“We’re just so incredibly excited to bring a new library out to southeast Mesa and this will be our fourth full-service location as part of Mesa Public Library,” he said. “(T)his all began with the rapid growth in southeast Mesa and in 2018 we undertook a branch-needs assessment for the area. The recommendation from that report was for a 30,000-square-foot branch library to accommodate population growth and maintain library service levels to the community. And that very same year voters approved the 2018 general bond, which included $16.8 million for funding for the new library.”
Design of the library is planned for spring 2022-summer 2023 with construction beginning in summer 2023, he said.
The one-story library may be constructed with adult, children, teen, community and Thinkspot technology areas surrounding a central market of shaded outdoor areas.
“So the idea is that these program spaces will act like a market stall that invite and excite visitors to explore all of the media and technology and activities that each of these areas have to offer,” Jeremy Kotter, architect and project manager with Richärd Kennedy Architects, said at the meeting.
Tom Wolf, who lives in the nearby housing subdivision of Encore, watched the virtual presentation and liked the proposed layout.
“I like the concept — basically five modules around a center covered courtyard. I like the concept of it and having it built so you can flow into the areas outside the building too,” he said May 3.
Having computers at the library would be beneficial, Wolf said.
“I actually have another house in Flagstaff and I use the Flagstaff library there because of their computer center. So if I forgot my computer here I can go there and have a nice free computer to work with; same thing here for other people who don’t have that capability,” he said.
The Southeast Mesa Library will replace the Mesa Express Library, 2055 S. Power Road, which was damaged in a July 2019 storm.
“A lot of you may remember that we had our Mesa Express Library and that was at the Power Square Mall at Power and Baseline,” Councilmember Kevin Thompson, District 6, said at the online meeting. “And unfortunately due to the [storm] that we always get we ended up losing that library because the roof collapsed and soaked a bunch of our books and our computers and we had been searching ever since for a home and we now have a home for our library and so we’re going to have a wonderful asset that’s added to our community.”
Richard Dyer Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
Meet Richard Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.
Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.
Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.
Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.
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