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April 20, 2006

Saint Paul Public Library Announces Transition Plan for Lexington and Rondo Community Outreach Branches

Press Release: PDF | Word

Saint Paul ’s innovative new Rondo Community Outreach Library, slated to replace the current Lexington Outreach Branch, is nearing completion. Lexington Outreach Branch Library will close to the public at 5:30 pm on Thursday, June 29.  The new Rondo Community Outreach Library will open at 12:30 pm on Monday, August 28.  This will allow 58 days for moving collections, refining new systems including underground parking and sophisticated security, installation of self check and theft detection gates, addition of public art, installation of 102 computers and 38 phones, as well as start-up of a coffee cart business in the lobby.   Rondo’s Grand Opening Celebration is planned for Saturday, September 9, 2006.

At 31,343 square feet, the Rondo Community Outreach Library will be the largest branch library in Saint Paul’s system, and more than twice the size of the library it’s replacing. In addition to an expanded small business resource center, the Rondo Community Outreach Library will feature adult literacy materials and other services for new Americans, a homework center for teens, software and hardware to better serve the physically challenged, community meeting rooms, and a children’s programming area. The innovative $23.5 million public/private library project also includes three floors of mixed income housing above the library facility.

The new library is named after the Rondo Community, an historically multicultural neighborhood which was decimated by the construction of Interstate 94 in the late 1950s. The neighborhood continues to be one of the most diverse areas of Saint Paul, with large African American, African and Hmong populations. Both grassroots community activists and the Mayor of Saint Paul have hailed the Library and housing development as the cornerstone for a bright new era at University and Dale.

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Melanie Huggins, Library Director | Library Board
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Media Relations: Sheree Savage / 651-266-7029

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