EDISON – City officials are set to hold a meeting with residents in January about plans to convert the Clara Barton branch library into a facility for youth with special needs.
Edison Chief of Staff Robert Diehl said the meeting will inform the community about the township’s plans. The date of the meeting has not yet been set.
The scheduled meeting comes after residents raised concerns about the changes at a recent City Council meeting and await an update expected at the Council’s Dec. 28 meeting.
In the fall, it was announced that Mayor Sam Joshi and the Edison Library Board are partnering to repurpose the Clara Barton Branch Library, 141 Hoover Ave., into a facility for youth with disabilities and move the library’s operations to leased space along nearby Amboy Avenue.
Plans call for the facility to enable children and young people with disabilities, particularly those on the autism spectrum, multiple disabilities and other health disabilities, to socialize, play and develop life skills at the facility. According to officials, the facility is designed as a program space, not a school.
The second floor of the building is slated to be converted into a sensory gym with equipment that includes trampolines, tactile features and more to create an educational and stimulating space for programming and free play for students with disabilities.
Some area residents, however, expressed concern over the loss of the library, one of three in the township. Residents previously fought to keep the branch library open after plans to close it a few years ago due to poor attendance.
“We don’t understand why this is the second time they’ve tried to take the library away from us without community input,” said resident Zhanna Martin at the December 14 Council meeting. “This library is very important to us.”
Martin said the library is used by children after school, as well as by the elderly. She said the library is the only community center in the Clara Barton Edison section.
“It’s a source of information and a place to stay on a rainy day. We don’t know why we’re not making the decision to take him away from us,” Martin said, adding that community members want more input.
Martin said she didn’t think there was a rental space along Amboy Avenue that would have enough room for all the books already in the library. She also expressed concern about what would happen if the space became too expensive to rent.
“We’re going to lose our library completely, and everybody knows that’s going to happen, and if we’re lucky, we’re going to have a bookmobile,” Martin said.
Another resident at the Dec. 14 meeting said the library is one of the reasons people buy homes in the Clara Barton neighborhood off Amboy Avenue, which is bordered by Woodbridge Avenue and Route 1.
Township Administrator Sonia Alves-Viveiros said the township is not getting rid of the library, but is looking to move it a block away to a site across the street from the former Stewart’s restaurant on Amboy Avenue.
“We looked at the place and it’s big enough. We’re not going to use a bookmobile at all because we already have one,” she said.
The resident noted that children will have to cross Amboy Avenue, which is a busy thoroughfare, to get to the library’s new location.
Email: srussell@gannettnj.com
Suzanne Russell is MyCentralJersey.com’s breaking news reporter, covering crime, trials and other mayhem. For unlimited access, sign up or activate your digital account today.
