Glen Head's new Gold Coast Library to open this summer

Since the Gold Coast Library in Glen Head was first established in 2005, its staff and patrons have struggled with tight quarters and parking issues spurred by its close proximity to the Long Island Rail Road.

This summer, the library is expected to turn the page on those problems.

A $12 million project to create a new Gold Coast Library is on schedule to be completed in July, said Mike Morea, the library’s director. The new, roughly 11,000-square-foot facility on a 2.6-acre plot of land will have a large community room, abundant outdoor space for programs, and study rooms for its patrons. It will serve as a stark change from the library’s current arrangement, where it rents a second building to host community events and meetings.

“The big idea is that everything is under one roof,” Morea said.

‘We knew we needed more room’

The origins of the Gold Coast Library trace back to 1997, when a local Girl Scout asked her mother why their community didn’t have its own library, officials with the library said.

Residents went to neighboring communities to get library services, but that arrangement was put in jeopardy after Jan. 1, 2000, when New York banned public libraries from selling membership cards to people outside their communities, according to Newsday archives.

What began as a Girl Scout project led to the formation of the North Shore Citizens Committee for Library Service, a group dedicated to the prospect of creating a new library in the community. The committee made a proposition that would establish a new library district, and in 2001, the new district was overwhelmingly approved with a vote of 1,399 to 315, according to Newsday archives.

Rosemarie Ryba was part of that effort and on the library’s original board of trustees. She’s now its vice president.

Ryba remembers the grassroots effort to make the idea of a library become a reality, and the pride that came when the library building at 50 Railroad Ave. was built in 2005 — a place they've called home for two decades. 

“We were a small library, but we had our own place,” Ryba said.

But options at the building have been limited for years. It was so small that it had to be completely closed on Wednesday when programs were held, she said.

“As we grew, we knew we needed more room,” Ryba said.

Morea said that, from the start, "our library was basically a 4,400-square-foot building in a train parking lot," adding, “We didn’t have a lot of space."

Morea said the library rented a second building at 40 Railroad Ave. for added space for needs like community meetings. However, rent for that location was approaching $100,000 a year when a new space began being considered by voters. The library board voted in April to sell the building at 50 Railroad Ave. to a day care for $925,000, according to Morea. 

George Pombar, president of the Glen Head/Glenwood Landing Civic Council, a group that oversees eight local civic groups, said the new space is welcome after there’s “been a hassle over the years” to get parking at the old library building. 

“The community is looking forward to seeing the new building, the new environment, lots of room,” Pombar said.

‘A forever home’

The library spent $2.25 million to buy a mostly-wooded 2.6-acre property at 146 Glen Head Rd., not far from its original building. On Dec, 8, 2020, voters approved, 698 to 274, the plan to borrow $10.8 million to build the facility on the plot,  Newsday reported.

The library put forward around $500,000 of its own funds, and the total cost of the project was initially $11.3 million but rose slightly to the $12 million threshold as costs rose, Morea said. The library also received grants throughout the construction process to help with costs. 

Construction began on the new property in September 2023, Morea said, and most of the building was completed as of mid-May.

The 11,000-square-foot facility is an upgrade over the roughly 6,700-square feet currently spread across the two buildings utilized by the library, Morea said.

A large community room in the new building will be able to hold 125 people, and Morea said the property has vast outdoor space that will be used to run programs. 

Sally Doulton, corresponding secretary for the Friends for the Gold Coast Library, said the new library will feature a reading garden sponsored by the nonprofit through the sale of paving bricks that will line the outdoor space. 

"People want green space," Doulton said. "So we're hoping having this reading garden will be a really good place for community members to meet, read and talk."

Caroline Ashby, director of the Nassau Library System, said the new facility “offers new meeting and event spaces, more room for collections, and gorgeous outdoor space.”

“After years juggling collections and services between two small buildings, the library finally has a forever home in the heart of the community that will serve the residents for decades to come,” Ashby said. “The community is going to love their new library experience.”

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ