It’s an area of Butler County growing by leaps and bounds.
“There will be over 400 new apartment units in the middle of the year and an additional 120 detached single-family units,” said Mike Tylka, who is the Adams Township manager.
That’s just for next year for Adams Township. Add in Middlesex Township, Valencia Borough and Mars Borough and the needs are growing too.
“Just comparing back in 2018 to now, we saw our summer reading numbers double, which proves there is growth in the community. Our card numbers have almost doubled as well,” said Janae Callihan, who is the Mars Library Director.
When it comes to the Mars Public Library, it’s busting at the seams.
“Our programs are selling out, every single one of them has wait lists, especially in the summertime. The next step would be to offer more programs, but we are kind of at capacity for doing that,” said Jennifer Bainbridge, who is the Mars Area Public Library Board President.
There were plans years in the making to take over the old Mars National Bank space to expand and grow, but Mars Borough and the Discovery Center weren’t able to come up with their portion of the funding for the project.
So now these four communities are asking their residents what’s next?
“We are asking them if they are open to a new library facility, if they would like to see it relocated and if they have ideas of where they’d like to see it relocated and what they would like to see changed or improved,” Callihan said.
Surveys went out to all the residents with questions catered to their communities. Adams Township is even asking residents if they’d be okay with a tax increase to help fund a new facility. The answers seem to be split.
While more than 50 percent don’t want a tax increase, it’s also split on locations, which is why leaders want the most responses to give the best picture.
“I’ve seen people recommend off Route 228 because it’s more convenient to them. But I also can say that the Mars residents do love the walkability and small-town downtown feel of it, so they are more on board with it staying in the borough,” Callihan said.
The survey is open until the end of the day on Tuesday. The goal is to have some ideas based on the results on what to do by the end of October.
You can find the link for the survey for each of the communities at https://www.marsarealibrary.org/.
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