LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer laid out his plans to apportion the city's fourth installment of American Rescue Plan funds Tuesday, there was a clear winner:
The city's libraries.
A grand total of $87.4 million was apportioned among a number of projects, and $14.6 million of it went to area libraries. That included $9.6 million for renovations and expansions to Louisville Free Public Library branches — including the Main, Portland and Parkland branches — and the remaining $5 million to reopen a branch in the Fern Creek area.
During budget cuts in 2019, Fern Creek and Middletown library locations were forced to close. Middletown has since reopened.
Lee Burchfield, director of Louisville Public Libraries, said the the new Fern Creek branch will be bigger and better than the last.
"It will allow us to provide preschool literacy programming, computer access and the kinds of programming that the Fern Creek neighborhood has already shown that they get excited about," he said.
In west Louisville, the Parkland neighborhood is getting its own branch after decades without one. And at the Portland neighborhood branch, the four-story library is getting an elevator and a 4,500-square-foot expansion.
"We knew we had asked for the money, and I was expecting some of the projects to get funded," Burchfield said. "But that they all got funded is just fantastic news."
The main branch of the library downtown is also getting renovations to allow an expansion to its third floor that is currently unused, as well as some lead paint removal.
"All of that will now be available, either for the first time in a very long time in some neighborhoods or it will be available in ways that it wasn't before," Burchfield said.
The projects each have their own timeline, with the longest singular project being the new build in Fern Creek. The main building's renovations will be spread out over time.
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