Independence Library Remains in Limbo 3 Months After Fire

IRVING PARK — More than three months after it suffered collateral damage from a fire in an adjacent building, the Independence Branch Library remains shuttered, with no date for reopening on the horizon.

Ald. John Arena (45th) provided an update on the library's status at a recent meeting of the Old Irving Park Association.

All materials and equipment have been removed from the library at 3548 W. Irving Park Road and are being assessed to determine what can be salvaged, Arena said.

The building itself is privately owned and is still undergoing structural inspection, the results of which aren't likely to be known for another month, he said. If the building is judged sound enough to remain standing, significant repairs would be needed before it could be occupied again — a process that could take six to eight months, the alderman estimated.

"Whatever does open will be better than what it was," Arena said.

The library, one of the busiest within the Chicago Public Library system, serves residents in a region that extends from the Chicago River to Cicero Avenue and beyond.

Patrons are being pointed to the Albany Park and Mayfair branches, as well as Sulzer Regional Library, for books and programs.

While the short-term goal might be to get the library back up and running at its former location, in the long term, residents are pushing for a new and permanent home for the Independence branch, which has been housed at a series of temporary leased sites since its founding in 1889.

In November, a coalition of residents, civic organizations and elected officials launched a campaign to lobby for a new library.

"This Independence library has been a vagabond," Anna Sobor of Old Irving Park said at a news conference announcing the library coalition. "We've got 126 years of excuses why we can't have a library. ... It's unacceptable."

State funds totaling $2.2 million had previously been pledged toward a new Independence library.

The money remains set aside for the library, Arena said, but that amount is nowhere near the $16 million it cost to build the new Albany Park Branch Library.

"Where's the rest going to come from? At this point, we don't know how we're going to finance it," the alderman said.

Though the library falls within the Irving-Elston Tax Increment Financing district, that TIF isn't currently generating any revenue, Arena said.

According to Sobor, a public meeting has tentatively been scheduled with Chicago Public Library officials for the end of March, at which time the community will have an opportunity to plead its case for a new library.

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