Community Library Sedona to add coffee bar & multi-purpose room

Community Library Sedona will soon have a coffee bar named “Java Love” after the former Sedona staple coffee shop that closed in 2017.

“It’s where everybody in the community used to meet,” CLS Director Judy Poe said. “You’d go there, you’d see people drinking their coffee, doing a crossword puzzle, talking with their neighbors, reading the newspaper; it was the community hangout spot.”

She said when the library did a community outreach survey, there were a lot of responses saying how much they’d like a coffee bar, because they missed hanging out at Java Love.

“I spoke with the people who used to own Java Love, and they said they would be happy to let us use their name,” Poe said. “Because that’s what we want to be, is the community gathering spot.”

The unmanned coffee bar is one part of the first phase of renovations in the Take Part, Make Your Mark campaign.

The library was built in the 1990s, which has left the library in need of some updates, Poe said.

“Our community has always loved the library,” the donor packet reads. “But the truth is, for far too long, we stopped asking it to become better.”

The updates include the coffee area, the restrooms — which will be replaced with six individual restrooms — and a new, medium-sized multi-purpose room.

“This will hold like up to 50 people,” Poe said of the multi-purpose room. “Right now, if we have a program and there’s a group that has 30 people in it, they’re using a room that holds 100. We’re going to be able to put them in here, and we’re going to be able to do programming ourselves at the same time. Or we’ll be able to have two community groups having meetings at the same time.”

The new room will be where the computers are now, near the library entrance that leads to the Friends of the Library commons and courtyard.

Where the glass door on the east will be converted into a foyer with an added bathroom, so those using the new room won’t have to walk to the opposite side of the library.

“There will be multiple entrances,” Poe said, one from the inside, one from the new foyer and one that goes directly out to the courtyard. “The reason I’m doing that is because I want people to be able to use this room before hours or after hours.”

The new room is the first part of Phase One, with the restrooms and coffee bar immediately following.

Assuming the construction begins by the end of April, Poe said construction should finish in September.

“Libraries are changing dramatically, especially with the advent of e-books and audio books and downloadable audio books and AI,” Poe said. “So we don’t really know exactly what this community will want this library to be in five years, and it could take us five years to raise the money to do that. So we decided that we would work in phases and provide the things that we think they need.”

She said she believes libraries will always have books, but these additions are to make sure there are other services the library can provide to the community.

While construction is ongoing, Poe said the library will do more outreach for future phases in the planned $7.2-million campaign.

This first phase is $2.3 million, of which the library has raised $1.95 million, thanks to a recent anonymous donation of $1 million.

“Everybody says, ‘oh my gosh, that’s so much.’” Poe said. “Well, it is. … Look at this building; there are no walls. The only walls are on the outside. And so everything has to be in the ceiling. We have to heat that room. We have to put electric into that room. We have to put a new bathroom in, which means we have to dig a new sewer line.”

Phase One also hopes to help improve the technology available at the library, including computers, lighting and electricity, according to the donor guide.

— James T. Kling
Larson Newspapers