A library for a river town

FREMONT – The plans for the future Tri-County Library and Community Center were presented in the Fremont Village Hall gymnasium on March 27. Approximately 60 people attended to study the blueprints and the graphic renderings of what the building will look like.
A representative from JLG Architects presented a slideshow with images of fishing villages, boat docks, seawalls, piers, and wooden pylons—familiar sights along the Wolf River.
“The design team studied fishing villages and waterfront communities to understand the design inspirations and commonalities that we can use to design this project,” she said.
Library director Mellissa Krause went through the timeline that led up to this milestone. She remarked on the realities of running a library: rising technology costs, inflation, and expanded staffing and hours. The pandemic also changed the role of community library and they adapted. The demand for computer usage is extremely high and they only have three computers.
“We’ve needed to update our current facility which is 30 years old. To meet the demands that the community has requested in community surveys and feedback—this is where this project began, with the recognition that we’ve outgrown this space, we’ve outgrown these walls and the community is demanding different things of us,” said Krause.

Krause went over the key points of the project: the grant of $4.25 million is being supplemented with an $82,000 donation from the Friends of the Neuschafer Community Library (and of that, $23,000 was given by an anonymous donor). This is for the land the structure will be built upon. There will be no direct tax increase as it is federally funded.
Also there is a focus on sustainability for the long-term and one design element was the addition of south-facing solar panels to power the building.
When asked if there was a chance that the budget cutters in Washington D.C. might axe this project and leave local taxpayers on the hook, Krause said she consulted with their grant administrator multiple times and this seemed very unlikely as this grant was awarded and already in the pipeline well before the current presidential administration took office.
The facility will have a patio and community garden, an outdoor children’s play area, and inside there will be a multipurpose room, a room for seniors, a living room-like area and numerous other rooms for study, tele-health meetings and conferences.
McMahon Associates are the project engineers and construction will start in early June and will be finished by late September 2026.