Lee County’s Riverdale Branch Library receiving extensive renovations

A Lee County library is getting a huge makeover starting at the end of April, with an upgraded parking lot and new areas inside the building to make it more accessible and aesthetically pleasing.

The total cost to renovate the Riverdale Branch Library, located at 2421 Buckingham Road in Olga, is around $4 million, including design, construction and furniture. It will include interior renovations to the central service desk, more meeting rooms and separate spaces for adults, teens and children. External improvements will include a redesign of the building and landscaping and parking lot upgrades that will help the function and appearance of the library.

Jill Horrom, the manager of internal services for the Lee County Library System, says these renovations were long overdue and she’s glad the county approved them for April.

“This is such a growing area; we’ve been in this area for many years and now we really want to upgrade the site and the interior to meet the growing needs,” Horrom said.

Horrom says this library will have something no other Lee County Library has had before.

“First time in the Lee County Library System, we’re gonna have a meeting room that’s flexible: We’re gonna have a wall that completely opens up, it’s a glass wall that opens up so we can really activate the space, so you can have a storytime in the room, then a community meeting in the afternoon by opening up the wall,” Horrom said.

Construction is set to begin at the end of April and will take around 7 months to finish. During this time, residents are encouraged to visit another one of the 13 branches within the Lee County Library System