EDUCATION
North Cobb Regional Library
celebrates grand opening
Switzer gets face-lift
Staff reports
Switzer Library in Marietta has undergone an extensive
renovation. County spokesperson Ross Cavitt said that
means a new children’s programming room, an outdoor
plaza adjacent to the children’s room with seating and a
garden area, dedicated teen space, family computing space
on the main floor and more.
In June 2019, Cobb commissioners set a nearly $6.9 million
guaranteed maximum price for the renovations and
expansions at Switzer.
Funds for the work at Switzer came from the county’s
2011 and 2016 SPLOSTs.
The library opened for limited service in September
2019.
FACTBOOK 2020 137
By Thomas Hartwell
rwilliams@mdjonline.com
Nancy Maxwell said she was born and raised steps away
from the home where the Carrie Dyer Reading Club was
established in 1898.
The reading club later became what many consider the first
library in Acworth and merged with the Cobb County-Marietta
Public Library System in 1963 after a new public library
was built nearby, according to
Cobb Landmarks.
And when a new Acworth
Library opened in 1967, Maxwell
said she lived across the
street.
“I’d walk down to get my
own books and just look at
‘em, and that’s how I learned
to read,” Maxwell said, adding
that as she grew, the library
became a second home.
She was present at the new
North Cobb Regional Library
in early September as
members of the Cobb County
Board of Commissioners,
mayors from Kennesaw and Acworth and library officials,
among others, lauded the opening of the 25,000-square-foot,
$8.6 million facility across the street from North Cobb High
School.
The new facility replaces both the Acworth Library, which
stood on Dallas Street next to Acworth City Hall; and the
Kennesaw Library at 2250 Lewis St., southwest of North Main
Street in Kennesaw. The two libraries, built in the mid-1960s,
closed their doors for good earlier in the summer.
“We’re so excited that we’re able to provide a facility for
the two communities that’s creative, that’s innovative, that’s
more than just books,” said Helen Poyer, director of the Cobb
County Public Library System.
The 2,900-square-foot Acworth Library and the around
5,000-square-foot Kennesaw Library just weren’t cutting it for
the region’s patrons, she said.
The new library at 3535 Old 41 Highway in Kennesaw offers
interactive play areas and dedicated child and teen rooms,
she said, as well as creative space, a community room, study
rooms, an outdoor plaza for children and a drive-up book
drop.
North Cobb Regional Library sits a couple miles, not steps,
from Maxwell’s home. And while she said she’d miss the short
walk to see her friends, even at 89, she won’t stop visiting.
“I’m still driving,” she said with a grin.
Nancy Maxwell, left, has gotten
to know many in the Cobb
Public Library System personally.
The 89-year-old Acworth
resident said she visited the
Acworth library nearly every
day for decades.
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