1/8/04

Town Moving Forward with Planning Future Cultural Center
Town Seeks Public Input on Future Community Facilities

When the doors of the future Wake County branch library open in Holly Springs, they will serve as more than the entry to a library. Holly Springs Town staff also is planning on those doors leading into a cultural center that will incorporate cultural arts activities and exhibits. This will mark the first time a Wake County library will share a building with a municipality. Currently, Town staff is seeking public input on what, exactly, that cultural center will offer.

Since 1997, Wake County has been planning to build a library in Holly Springs. Thanks to voter support of the library bond referendum, a branch library is planned to open in Holly Springs in 2006, to be located on the Ballentine Street park property near Town Hall. Town officials are moving forward with plans for the facility to include a cultural center. The cultural center would be managed by the Town’s Parks and Recreation Department. Although the library and cultural center have not been designed, officials are planning on the two buildings sharing a common entrance and lobby with exhibit space.

As part of planning what the future cultural center and other community facilities will include, a survey will be available to Holly Springs residents, public meetings will be held and a committee will discuss key issues. In addition, the Hunt Community Center is being evaluated to determine its suitability for renovations and continued use, and additional future parks and recreation sites are being evaluated. The Town hired a consultant, Heery International, to oversee the process.

“As the Town continues to develop its overall recreation program, this Town Council feels strongly the need to examine our facilities, our programming needs and how we can prioritize those needs,” said Carl Dean, Town manager. The community facility survey will be sent to residents in late January or February. About one year ago, the Parks and Recreation Department mailed a different, more general survey to residents requesting input on both indoor and outdoor programs. The new survey will seek specific information about what types of facilities and programs residents want in a cultural center.

Public meetings to discuss the future facility and the programs it will offer will be held in February in Town Hall. The meetings will be an opportunity, in addition to the survey, for residents to express their ideas about future community facilities. While specific dates for the community meetings are not yet scheduled, the Town will advertise the meetings in the local paper and on the Town website, www.hollyspringsnc.us.

A community needs assessment committee that will study the future cultural center is also being formed. The committee will include a variety of participants, from local residents to county officials, including Wake County Regional Library Supervisor E. Gail Harrell and Mark Forestieri, architect and project manager for Wake County Facilities Design and Construction. While public input and committee work is in progress, Heery will evaluate the Town’s current community facilities and examine potential future areas for expansion.

The Town’s current community center, the Hunt Community Center, was originally a schoolhouse. Len Bradley, director of parks and recreation, said that if the building is continued to be used as a community center it needs improved climate control and its room space needs to be better utilized. Instead of all classroom-sized rooms, the building needs both larger and smaller rooms that are specialized for various activities, Bradley said.

“We already know we need more indoor athletic space,” Bradley added.

Bradley said that Heery International is looking into the possibility of an aquatic facility, the space needed for enhancing senior programming, and the development and addition of Holly Springs fitness programs. Herry International is expected to present the results from the evaluation in March, 2004.

Construction on the library and cultural center is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005. While typical branch libraries are 3,000-5,000 square feet, the county is planning on an approximately 8,000-square-foot library for Holly Springs. The cultural center is estimated to be an additional 5,000 square feet.

“This is another exciting project for downTown Holly Springs,” said Jennifer Mizelle, director of the Town’s Economic Development Department. “It marks another step toward achieving our vision of establishing a dynamic downTown.”

In 1997, the Town Council adopted a plan by M. Joseph Hakan, developer of the Dean Dome and owner of Raleigh’s City Market. The plan changed the face of downTown Holly Springs and called for the construction of a Town hall, library, new shops and offices, and a Chamber of Commerce office in the heart of Town. The plan also called for open space, an amphitheater and a traffic circle at the western edge of the library site. The addition of a library and cultural center signifies the gradual transformation of downTown Holly Springs.

Town of Holly Springs - PO Box 8 - 128 South Main Street - Holly Springs, NC 27540 - (919) 552-6221 - Holly.Springs@hollyspringsnc.us