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ORIGINAL TOWN SITE

Hollyhock Library hours to double

Council OKs $43,000 to open 6 days a week

Posted 10/14/19

Residents in the Original Town Site who have been hoping for more hours at the Hollyhock Library, 15844 N. Hollyhock St., are about to get their wish.

After about a yearlong push from residents in the area, the City Council on Oct. 1 agreed to spend $43,000 from the Contingency fund to pay for doubling the hours from 18 to 36 a week.

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ORIGINAL TOWN SITE

Hollyhock Library hours to double

Council OKs $43,000 to open 6 days a week

Posted

Residents in the Original Town Site who have been hoping for more hours at the Hollyhock Library, 15844 N. Hollyhock St., are about to get their wish.

After about a yearlong push from residents in the area, the City Council on Oct. 1 agreed to spend $43,000 from the Contingency fund to pay for doubling the hours from 18 to 36 a week starting in January.

“It’s a great thing to do,” Vice Mayor Roland Winters said. “We need to get more live hours in that library over there.”

The actual hours are still to be decided by the Surprise Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, but the city’s first library will likely be open six days a week. Proposed hours would be 1 to 7 p.m. every Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

The library is currently only open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays during those respective hours.

Parks and Recreation Director Donna Miller said the annual impact will be about $85,000, and the money the Council approved last week was to reimburse the Maricopa County Library District for six months of operations at the facility.

“Double the hours essentially doubles the budget required,” Ms. Miller said.

The Parks and Rec Advisory Commission is expected to set the new hours at its Monday, Oct. 28 meeting. Those will go into effect in January.

Ms. Miller said the city is hoping to align the hours with the new Asante Branch Library, 16763 W. Vereda Solana Drive, when it opens in January. She said city staff will monitor attendance reports to see if its worth continuing the hours next year as part of the regular budget process.

“Having a library open six days a week gives the children an opportunity to enhance their literacy skills,” said Councilman Ken Remley, who serves the area. “Many of the children who live there don’t have a computer at home like most of us do. They don’t have Internet access like most of us do. They don’t have the ability to do homework like most of us do. Small wonder their grade scores aren’t as good as they would otherwise be.”

When it first opened in the 1980s, the Hollyhock Library operated 24 hours a week when Surprise was still a town. But it was also still in the main populated part of Surprise.

In the early 2000s, Hollyhock became more of an afterthought in the city as the population shifted west and the Northwest Regional Library, 16089 N. Bullard Ave. opened.

By 2010, Hollyhock’s hours were cut in half to 12 hours per week. It stayed that way for about seven years until Friends of the Surprise Libararies were able to collect enough donations to help fund an additional six hours a week. The organization has since continued the fundraising to pay for the extra day.

Alyson Cline, the president of the Friends of the Surprise Libraries, thanked the Council for “supporting the Old Town Site” after a long effort to make it happen.

“Some of the members [of the Advisory Commission} started talking about the need for need for additional hours in the future,” Ms. Miller said. “Not only to provide access for the community but to align with the opening of Asante Library, making the hours match up.”

Mr. Remley said the added hours will help residents who have difficulty traveling to the Northwest Regional Library.

“Literacy is the cornerstone of education in the United States,” Mr. Remley said. “Without being able to read we are severely hampered by where we can become in life.”

Former City Councilman Doc Sullivan told the current Council the move was long overdue — library book pun intended.

“Being open six days a week for $43,000 is worth every nickel,” Mr. Sullivan said.

Editor’s note: Jason Stonecan be reached at 623-445-2805, on email atjstone@newszap.com or on Twitter at @thestonecave. Visit yourvalley.net.