Public Hearing Canceled

The Public Hearing originally proposed for April 13, 2023, has been canceled. There will not be a new Notice of Public Hearing published within the Miami County Republic, which serves as the City’s official newspaper for legal publications.

The City of Osawatomie and Osawatomie Public Library Board of Trustees would like more time to speak with the community, refine numbers, and do more comprehensive planning before submitting an application for Library Improvements to the Kansas Department of Commerce’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program in the Community Facilities category.

Because of the extensive application requirements and deadlines within the CDBG program, this cancelation of the public hearing means that the City will not be eligible to submit an application for the current CDBG funding cycle, though City staff and Trustees are eager to continue working to identify other means of funding or private investment.

The Osawatomie Public Library has been advocating for large-scale expansion for over 15 years, including a previous application to the CDBG program that went unfunded in 2011, and continues to look forward to the next phase of its development. Thanks to generous contributions from Library friends and patrons and over a decade of fundraising, OPL has roughly $120,000 in its dedicated Expansion Fund that can be applied as matching funds toward much larger grant opportunities should they become available.

Trustees and City staff are committed to identifying a development plan that ensures the Osawatomie Public Library another 150+ years of service to the Osawatomie community and surrounding population. Libraries are a vital resource to any community, and offer a wide variety of programming and critical outreach services at little-to-no cost.