In Tuesday’s Dowagiac Daily News, it was reported redesigns needed to be made to planned renovations to the Dowagiac District Library due to higher-than-anticipated construction costs. The redesigns included making the planned basement, community room and connector skylight smaller.

While we were saddened to hear that the library’s renovations won’t be quite as grand as initially expected, we are still excited to see all that the renovation will have to offer and believe that it will add benefit to the community. In fact, we have been excited about the library’s improvements from the beginning.

When we first reported last summer that the library was planning to go for a millage to support large scale improvements to the library, we were intrigued by the plans to add meeting and community spaces and nearly double the space of the library, but, we wondered if it was an achievable goal.

However, when the millage was passed in November 2018, following a failed proposal on the August 2018 ballot, we allowed ourselves to believe in library director Matt Weston’s vision of making the library a community hub where people can meet, collaborate and work to better themselves and their community. 

So long as the rest of construction and renovation happens on schedule, we believe this can happen.

In our experience, growth begets growth. When the library grows, we believe that even more developments in Dowagiac will build around it. We are hopeful that the successful renovation of the Dowagiac District Library will be the stepping stone that launches the renaissance of Dowagiac.

We hope that the library’s renovation will draw visitors and residents to the area and serve as a space where community members can come up with the next idea that will make Dowagiac great.

Opinions expressed are those of general manager Ambrosia Neldon, managing editor Sarah Culton and sports editor Scott Novak.