The Dauphin Library now has a pocket park in front of the building.
Alison Moss, Director of the Parkland Regional Library says the idea started last summer.
“We started to imagine a little pocket park along Main St. that would provide some seating in front of the Dauphin Public Library. So, to me, pocket parks are all these little nooks that you see along Main St. that include a little bench or a little planter and we just wanted to really create our own in front of the library.”
Moss says they received a grant of about $3200 that they used to buy two round picnic tables.
“In addition to that, the City of Dauphin provided us with a new bench that’s in the style of downtown Dauphin, a couple of planters, and then a really nice black-iron bike rack. So, with the contribution from the city and the donation from the community foundation, we were able to really pull together a nice little outdoor seating area.”
The library’s free Wi-Fi can be reached in the pocket park.
“There’s often people around our building during hours that we’re not open to the public and they’d be sitting along the sidewalk, or sometimes even bringing their own lawn chair to access the Wi-Fi. So now people can have a seat and use the Wi-Fi and I think that’s even more important in this time that we’ve unfortunately had to close our access to the public during COVID. But, we’re making steps and plans to return to a better, normal place.”
She says there are lots of little finishing touches and sprucing up of the building that they’d like to do. If anyone has ideas to improve the pocket park, Moss is all ears.
Moss wants to hold a grand opening at some point during the summer.
