Quite a few Bayfield teens have adopted the Pine River Library as their after school hang-out place. The library has been seeking town help to accommodate that.
"We get between 40 and 85 kids every day after school," Library Director Shelley Walchak said. "We've blocked off use of the community room every day between 3:30 and 5:30 to house the kids." The library has programs for the different age groups. ... Most of the kids that are coming need a place to go. Their parents work in Durango."
The library has been talking with a representative from the Boys & Girls Club in Durango about a program at the library, which could include a building addition and creation of a park on a 0.8 acre lot the library owns just to the west. The library also is working with town officials.
James Chenowith, a seventh grader at Bayfield Middle School, comes to the library two to three times a week after school.
"A lot of my friends are here," he said. He likes the library's science programming for teens, which has covered rockets and electricity, for exampled.
"There's not really many places to go," after school, he said. A Boys and Girls Club would be a good thing to have in Bayfield, he said when asked about the concept. "I would go there."
After extended discussion on Feb. 16, town trustees agreed to contributee $1,200 toward the cost of having a team of architecture students from the University of Colorado at Denver look at options for park facilities on the library land.
Town Manager Chris La May said the library wants the CU students to create conceptual site drawings for use in a grant application to help build the park. The library is looking at a Great Outdoors Colorado (GoCo) grant. The application would have to go through the town. The sticking point is that the town also wants to apply for a GoCo grant to do a parks, trails, and open space master plan.
In his staff report, La May said, "The Park, Open Space, and Trail Planning effort has been discussed for a number of years, and with the acquisition of additional property (23 acres along the Pine River) and potential future development, there is a strong desire of staff to initiate this effort sooner rather than later."
GoCo used to take grant applications two times each year, but they have changed to only one time per year, in November, La May said. So the town would forego its own application until November 2017 if it serves as a conduit for the library's request this year.
In addition to the proposed park, La May said, "The library is talking with the Boys & Girls Club, considering closing in the back porch, maybe expand it to have space for the teen population. There would be programming with the Boys & Girls Club."
School district officials also have designated space for a Boys & Girls Club on their site plan for the 40 acres where they want to build a new school for grades 3-5. That's just south of the mid school.
Walchak said the Boys & Girls Club has "wanted to get into Bayfield for a long time." She called a project with the library "a marriage made in heaven. We can move forward together with a capital project."
She said most Boys & girls Clubs have a gym. The park would serve that function for a club at the library.
Asked his opinion on the library proposal at the town board meeting, Bayfield Marshal Joe McIntyre told trustees, "I know it would probably be of some help to them for the kids to have a place other than just hanging out in the library."
La May said, "We'd have the (architecture) students meet with mid and high school students on what would best serve their needs, what kind of facilities they would use. We talked about just a concrete basketball court that would be easy to maintain. I don't think we have the answer today."
Town Parks and Rec Director Scott Key said, "We want to be part of the planning process. We'll guide the process as much as they do. It will offer that age group something else to do besides loiter around the library."
But trustee Rachel Davenport commented, "I have a concern that this won't solve their problem. I think the parents need to be involved. I feel like these kids are going to the library in lieu of day care, for lack of a better word."
Trustees generally agreed that it would be worth $1,200 to have the architect students do a conceptual plan. Davenport said, "As long as we are straight-forward about what our needs are regarding the GoCo grant, so they aren't surprised in November."
Key added, "Getting the drawings is kind of setting them up to think we'll help with the GoCo grant."
La May said, "I'll move forward with (the architecture student) services and come back with a memorandum of understanding, and talk with the library that our priority is the master plan." The MOU will be between the town, the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), CU Denver, and the Colorado Center for Community Development.
The total cost for the student technical team is $4,840, with the town and library district splitting half that cost as the local match.
Melanie Mazur contirbuted to this story.
