Millvale, Etna working toward shared library system in Etna

A proposed $3.2 million renovation project at 341-343 Butler St. in the Etna business district will house a public library that will share resources with Millvale’s library.

The Millvale Community Library, Millvale Borough, Etna Community Organization (ECO) and Etna Borough signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2021 creating a shared library system.

ECO, a nonprofit, wants to create a public library in its proposed Etna Center for Community, located in the heart of Etna.

An Etna couple is heading ECO’s operations.

Robert Tuñón, an architect who designed the new community building, is ECO’s chairman of the board. His wife, Megan Tuñón, is ECO’s executive director and an Etna councilwoman.

Etna does not offer an indoor public space for events or services, Megan Tuñón said.

“The Etna Center for Community will offer resources like access to technology, early childhood educational programming and activities for seniors and teens,” she said.

“It will be a place for food programs and help with job applications,” Tuñón said. “Most importantly, it will be a place where Etna residents can gather together to exchange ideas and help one another.”

It will take several years for ECO to raise the money and renovate the Butler Street building, which is owned by the nonprofit. The library will be on the ground floor and share space with other community organizations and activities.

Millvale and Etna libraries will share programming, resources, funding and staff. The shared services will allow each community library to operate more efficiently and economically, Tuñón said.

Millvale Community Library executive director Nora Peters said the completion of the MOU allows the borough to move forward with logistics and planning in 2022.

“When we’re talking about staffing two libraries instead of one, and what that’s going to look like, those decisions are really informed by the successes of Millvale Community Library,” Peters said. “This is an opportunity to take a step back and look at what we’ve done well and use that as a starting point for this new library system, versus learning it through trials and tribulations.”

The memorandum of understanding opens the door for ECO to work with Millvale to offer library programs this year before the Etna Center for Community opens, Tuñón said.

The estimated project costs include renovation expenses as well as installing library facilities, furniture, media and other supplies.

In just the last year, ECO has raised almost $121,000 with commitments for an additional $189,000 from the Neighborhood Partnership Program, the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, and the state Department of Community and Economic Development, she said. The nonprofit has been applying for other grants and donations and will mount more fundraisers in the future.

“We’d love to open the doors in 2024, but it’ll take a lot of success and hard work to get there,” Tuñón said.

Details on future library programs in Etna will be announced later this year.

Now is the time to offer residents a free public library in Etna, said Mary Ellen Ramage, borough manager.

Ramage has lived through times when the borough had a library and when it did not. The last library in the borough was housed at All Saints School, which closed in 2004.

“Everything has changed so much,” Ramage said.

Decades ago, everyone was driving to the mall and other places like the Shaler North Hills Library, she noted.

“Now, everyone wants to walk to the local store and through the community.”

For the last decade, the Shaler library has been offering a free, popular reading program at the borough’s playground in the summer, she added.

Residents would benefit from library resources located in heart of the borough.

“We see the need and the loss of the ability of kids to have outlets,” Ramage said. “Seniors who don’t have the internet need to go to a place to have someone help them file tax returns.”

Partnering with Millvale’s library will open up funding from the Allegheny Regional Asset District and provide access to software and other resources, Ramage said.