$5.8M Moriches branch opens as part of library expansion

Mastics-Moriches-Shirley library officials have opened the second of three new or renovated branches, and they hope the latest one in Moriches is as successful as the first. 

The district has issued 746 new library cards since the Mastic Beach branch opened in January, library director Kerri Rosalia said, adding that about 8,000 items have been checked out of the new branch over the past three months.

"We kind of expect the same thing happening here," library board president Joe Maiorana said Wednesday, as workers put the finishing touches on the $5.8 million Moriches branch.

The branch, festooned with ceiling art evoking clouds and sea waves, opened Saturday on a 4-acre Montauk Highway site donated by the William Floyd school district. The 7,000-square-foot library includes a general reading area and spaces for children and teenagers.

Set on the campus of Moriches Elementary School, the branch will better serve Moriches residents, who live about four miles from the district's main branch in Shirley, officials said.

"Being adjacent to the elementary school, we know usage is going to be high," Rosalia said.

The new library is part of a $26.7 million building project that includes the Mastic Beach branch and plans to renovate the 45,000-square-foot Shirley library. The $16.4 million Shirley renovation has been plagued by delays that pushed back its reopening to sometime next year, library officials have said. Library services are available at the Mastic Recreation Center while the library is rebuilt.

Library district residents in 2019 approved a $22.6 million bond referendum that raised taxes on the average house by about $86 annually. The remaining $4.1 million is expected to come from reserve funds and grants.

The Moriches branch was designed to mirror the appearance of the Little Red Schoolhouse, a retired school building steps away from the new library.

Library officials had hoped to renovate the aging wooden schoolhouse using reserve funds, donations and grants, but those plans are in doubt because of serious structural problems, Maiorana said. He said he could not estimate the cost of rehabilitating the building.

The school district had planned to demolish the facility, built in 1925 and last used as a school almost 40 years ago, before library officials agreed to save it.

"It's in pretty bad shape, so it's going to take an extensive amount of funds," Maiorana said. "I'm not sure the community has the capability to raise the funds or not."

Raymond Keenan, a Shirley civic leader who has supported the library project, said canceling the Little Red Schoolhouse renovation would put a damper on the overall project. 

“I understand if there’s a delay," he said, "but I don’t want to see a total abandonment.”

By Carl MacGowan

carl.macgowan@newsday.comCarlMacGowan

Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.