The Belle Haven branch of the Menlo Park Library is set to reopen Jan. 9 with expanded hours after getting a facelift.
The library will show off a new coat of paint, new carpeting and new furniture, as well as new exterior signs. There will be additions to the adult, teen and Spanish language collections, as well as new STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) events, beginning with a Winter Science Workshop on Jan. 27 for first- through fifth-graders. The City Council in October appropriated $140,000 toward the facility and collection improvements.
“We also have an open house for the branch scheduled for the 27th of January,” Assistant Library Services Director Nick Szegda said in an email. “Not a lot of details yet, but we will push them out as soon as they are available.”
The library, which sits adjacent to Belle Haven Elementary School on Ivy Drive, has over the past 15 months reduced the number of hours it’s open to the community by serving only students during school hours.
After catching criticism for reducing the branch’s hours while planning to rebuild the downtown library, the city earlier this year approved a new part-time librarian for the branch.
As a result, the branch should remain open to the public an additional 13 hours a week. The new hours, starting Jan. 9, are 3:15 to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 3:15 to 6 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Belle Haven library renovations took place around the same time that the city is doing a $100,000 study on the feasibility of building a new Belle Haven library at a separate location. The neighborhood wants a library of roughly 14,000 square feet built at the Onetta Harris Community Center campus on Terminal Avenue. The city is also establishing a seven-member advisory committee to assist with the study.
Some Belle Haven residents resent that the downtown library rebuild could cost as much as $45 million — with roughly half of the expense being paid for by local philanthropist John Arrillaga — while just a fraction of that amount has been dedicated to the Belle Haven branch.
“We’ve developed four different plans on how a library could be built in Belle Haven,” Matt Henry told the council in October. “We did not just start thinking about this library four months ago. We’ve been working on this for a decade and we’re still waiting.”
