SNOW HILL – The Worcester County Library is now planning for a new Pocomoke branch at the facility’s existing site on Market Street.
Though the library has been working with the City of Pocomoke toward erecting a new facility at the site of the old armory, delays have prompted officials to abandon that plan. Instead, library officials will develop a proposal for a new building where the existing branch is now.
“For the library board it just seemed like the armory site was going to be more delays,” said Jeff Smith, a member of the library’s board of trustees. “It seems like the town is starting to have different ideas about the armory site. We just decided we’d let Pocomoke continue with whatever they had in mind and we’d go back to our original library site.”
Library officials have been working on plans for the replacement of the existing Pocomoke facility, which is more than 50 years old, since 2019. In 2021, at the request of the City of Pocomoke, library officials approved moving forward with plans for a new structure on the site of the old armory building. While the city pursued grant funding to cover the cost of demolishing the armory, the library pursued state funding for construction.
“The project has seen significant delays as a result of the armory site selection,” the library board wrote in a report to the Worcester County Commissioners, “delays which have cost us time and financial resources. However, we have continued despite these delays on the understanding that both the City of Pocomoke and Worcester County were in full support of placing the library at the armory site.”
To help offset the county contribution to construction costs, the library successfully applied for a $2.2 million Public Library Capital Grant.
“We have since learned that the City of Pocomoke may have other ideas about what it wants to build on the armory site and to date demolition has not begun,” the letter reads.
As a result, Smith approached the commissioners this week seeking their support as the library adjusts course and begins planning for a facility on the current site. Smith said the board was pursuing another grant for the project and the application deadline was in May, which is what prompted this week’s request. Smith stressed that the board was still committed to bringing a new facility to the Pocomoke community.
“We are completely in favor of a new library,” he said. “That’s why we’ve decided to get back to our site so we can get moving.”
The commissioners voted unanimously to support the library’s proposal to begin planning for a new facility on the existing Market Street site.
