After more than a decade of waiting, residents in western Shawnee are full of ideas for the long-delayed Monticello Library branch.
Several dozen people attended a public input session last week at the Shawnee Library to voice their suggestions for the $14.4 million branch library being planned on a vacant 2.75 acres at 22435 W. 66th St. in Shawnee and currently scheduled to open in mid-2018.
First proposed in 2005, the Monticello library is finally moving forward thanks to last summer’s property tax increase to expand and maintain the Johnson County Library system. The county bought the property in 2010.
Rick Wise, senior principal for architecture firm The Clark Enersen Partners, said the branch “has been a long time coming” and asked residents for ideas on how the library’s building design, collections and technology could best serve them.
At 30,000 square feet, the branch…
