By DEAN REA/Correspondent/The Herald — Lowell residents will have an opportunity Saturday, June 5, to voice their views on the design and use of a building that once housed a church and is expected to house the Maggie Osgood Library and City Hall at 70 N. Pioneer St.

This is one of the designs being considered for library, City Hall at Lowell.
The “visioning” workshop from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. will be facilitated by Curt Wilson, a Eugene architect, and by Penny Hummel of Hummel Consulting in the library building on Pioneer Street.
Earlier the city council approved a $53,000 architectural services agreement with Wilson.
The architectural work will consist of planning, design and construction administrative services for the renovation of approximately 2,723 square feet of the building.
Prior to 2019, the city housed its library in the City Hall building located at 107 E. 3rd St. Due to structural deficiencies the library portion was closed. The city purchased a former church building at 70 N. Pioneer St. to house the new library, but it has remained closed pending upgrading. The city has a collection of approximately 15,000 books, DVDs and other materials that it will locate to the remodeled facility.
The city hired a planning firm in the spring of 2019 to lead a community design process for renovating the building. The design process resulted in the 2020 Lowell Community Facilities Study, which presented two choices for the new building: use as a City Hall and as a library or turn it into a stand-alone library.
The city is funding the design phase through its general operating budget and anticipates funding construction through a combination of grants from private foundations and other government entities and with donations that have been received.