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I was fortunate to take part, along with the Community Coalition of Empire and the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, in the mural dedication last week in Empire. The mural is the result of the collective efforts of the Star of Hope, the Community Coalition of Empire, the Coos Bay Urban Renewal Agency, along with artist Simon Whiteowl.
The new 19-foot by 60-foot, full color, historic mural is located on the west wall of the Star of Hope building, located at Newmark Avenue and S. Wall Street. The mural has been one of the goals of the stakeholders in the Empire area for quite some time. The partners believe the new mural will help to represent the history of the Empire area and provide a point of interest in the Empire Urban Renewal District.
After the dedication of the mural, the Bay Area Chamber of Commerce hosted one of their Business After Hours events at the Dolphin Theatre. During the event, Coos Bay Library Director Sami Pierson shared the condition of our deteriorating 60-year-old library building and the work being done to design the new library which will be situated near the edge of John Topits Park.
Some have voiced concern that the placement of the new library will somehow limit the current uses of the park. It's important to note that the John Topits Park encompasses 200 acres; the new library building, and the enhanced parking lot will take up only 1% of the existing park.
I have heard from some of our citizens who are just now learning about the need for the new library. They are surprised that so many people have been working towards a new building since 2014, when the library's foundation failure was first identified.
Finding a site proved to be the most challenging! While there was a desire for the new facility to be constructed downtown, finding a two plus acre parcel outside the tsunami and flood inundation zone wasn’t achievable. After considering a number of possible locations during several public meetings and with input from members of the Library Board, Library Foundation and Friends of the Library, Parks Commission, Community Coalition of Empire, etc., a location was approved. The location of the future library will be just inside the entrance of John Topits Park off of the Hall Street entrance.
During this process, it was determined that the new library facilities should also serve as disaster preparedness / response component for our community. The kitchen and large meeting rooms could be used as a feeding location and or as a shelter during a post disaster event if needed. In addition, the new facility will also house the North Coos 911/Communication Center which provides public safety dispatching services to not only Coos Bay, but North Bend, Coquille, Coquille Tribal Police and Southwestern Oregon Community College Security. Our dispatch personnel process on an average 5,000 calls for public safety services each month. This is a great opportunity to move this critical asset to a facility outside the tsunami and flood inundation zone. Having the North Coos 911/Communication Center in the park will provide an added benefit of a safety presence in the park around the clock.
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