With steel beams signifying a building well under way, the Harford County Public Library's new Havre de Grace Branch is on track to open its doors by the target date of early 2016.
"It looks like it is going to be completed in early December, which was the original completion date," library director Mary Hastler said Wednesday.
Shelving, books and other amenities will then be installed, and the administration expects to have a soft opening in January, followed by an official opening in January or February, Hastler said.
She expected to have photos of the project on the library website shortly so residents can follow the progress of the two-story, 19,000-square-foot branch, set to cost $7.72 million.
"It's very exciting how quickly it starts to look like a real building," Hastler said, adding the facility should look more established by the summer.
The library administration also has a request for a capital grant through the Maryland State Department of Education for $1.2 million, which would go toward the new branch, if approved by the General Assembly by this spring, she said.
While the new branch is under construction by Lewis Contractors, the library's temporary site at the Tidewater Marina Building at 203 Market St. has stayed relatively busy, considering the location change.
The temporary branch got 11,063 walk-ins for January, Hastler said. It also held 23 activities and programs, with 1,165 people who took part in those events in January. Library staff fielded 2,715 questions for information during that time, she said.
"It's doing good and we have had a lot of folks visiting the branch and using it," she said, adding the move does not seem to have thrown people off too much, especially in a fairly tight-knit town like Havre de Grace.
"It's worked really well. We did put a big banner on the old library to tell people it moved," she said. "There's been very little confusion."
The new branch, set to replace Havre de Grace's 27-year-old facility at Pennington and North Union avenues, will house the existing staff for now, Hastler said. She expects to add three to five additional staff members, several of them full-time, but that will depend on funding.
Plans for the library's amenities remain the same, with a large children's area and an emphasis on wireless and wi-fi service, which has been "a strong focus" for all the county's branches, Hastler said.
Designed by Manns Woodward Studios architects, the branch will add 10 computers, a business resource center and more space for quiet study, programming and community events.
"It's just such a great project, just really great," Hastler said.