The Newburgh Free Library will return its town branch location back to the Newburgh Mall. With a five year lease set to begin on July 1, the anticipation is to have the new location open and operational for the community by the new school year. The library team will be working over the course of the summer months to prepare the space for all to enjoy once again at the mall.

In August 2022, the library had celebrated its 10th anniversary at the Newburgh Mall before it was told that its in-mall location, a former bookstore, would be closed by the end of the year. “This has been a long time coming, we never wanted to leave our space,” said Mary Lou Carolan, Executive Director of the Newburgh Library.

The current space and several others were slated for potential dining options to be added to the mall makeup with the arrival of the Resorts World Casino that marked its official opening last year. The library was initially paying a year to year lease with rent at $1,000 a month. On Tuesday, June 6, the Newburgh Board of Education approved the license agreement between the library and the mall management that would see a five-year lease from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2028. This would be at the annual rate of $57,600. According to the resolution, the stated annual rate would be reduced by three months of free rent during space renovation, thus reducing the fee to $43,200.

During the last six months, Carolan shared that the community that would once frequent the town branch extension came to the main branch on Grand Street which allowed more interaction between the staff and community. “It’s been great to be able through these last six months to see people coming in from the Town of New Windsor and the Town of Newburgh to come to the main branch in the city, because a lot of people had never been here before,” said Carolan.

Over the course of the past six months, Carolan has worked with her team and community partners in hopes of finding another space to bring the library. With all the places with available leases and adequate spaces for consideration, not many calls came back. As a library extension within a location mainly surrounded and established by retail locations over the past decade, Carolan explained that in order for the library to work, it would need to meet several factors. “My commitment to the community was to spend this time [the past six months] exploring all other options within the town, the Town of New Windsor, the Town of Newburgh, and trying to maintain a couple of key factors which were walkability, visibility, safety and access,” said Carolan.

With the second iteration of the library, Carolan shared enthusiasm in bringing more interactive and technology based opportunities for the community. The hope would be to appeal to those in the community who take advantage of the mall as an exercise space and allow them to experience virtual reality and interactive technologies. With the return, Carolan recognized Eliot Spitzer of the mall’s management team who she had connected with and had been open and accommodating to the mall’s vision for the space. The new location for the library has been slated for the Art & Frameworks storefront on the opposite side of the mall. New additions such as motorcycle displays from the Motorcyclepedia museum and to-go eatery stations have also made their way to the mall for additional attractions.

Heading into the next three months, which is the timeline for construction, Carolan has plans to form an advisory committee of townspeople and other stakeholders to collect feedback on what should be brought to the library. The library has also been given the approval to bring furniture and other fixtures from the former library space to the new one, which will help cost wise. The library will also be looking to accommodate potential weekend visitors.