Approval by County Executive Thomas Gordon of a conceptual plan for the new library to be constructed on the Foulk Road side of the park opens the way for the rest of the development, Husband said. The $860,000 project will include a ballfield, tennis and basketball courts, picnic pavilion and walking paths.

The recreational component will spread over both the original park and additional land acquired along Wilson Road to make up for the acreage to be consumed by the library. That was necessary because the Talley-Day acquisition was partly financed with federal money.

Ann Hampton, who has primary responsibilities for libraries in the county department, said the new one will be 40,000 square foot as originally planned. It will replace the 15,000 square foot facility at Concord Pike and Whitby Drive, near Talleyville. At a public meeting on Mar. 1, it was said that Gordon was looking for a 'nice stately government building' and was willing for it to be smaller to fit into the budget.

Hampton said the early plan still calls for it to be ‘elegant’. She said it will be constructed of stone, stucco and a generous amount of glass. It will be two stories tall and probably contain a basement.

The county announcement concerning Gordon’s approval was still fuzzy on precisely where the building will be situated in the park, other than spotting it in the southwestern corner. For nearly two years, location has been the subject of a controversy between residents of Windsor Hills, across Foulk Road from the park entrance, and Nordic Dell, which abuts the park’s northern boundary, neither of which wanted it close to them.

As best could be determined, the library will be along the side of the property adjacent to Foulk Manor North retirement and nursing home, but set back from Foulk Road as far as the treeline now visible from the present park entrance.

Steve Caponi, president of the Windsor Hills Civic Association, said he was satisfied with that decision because it will draw traffic into the park and minimize the likelihood that cars will back up at the entrance itself to drop off patrons, particularly children. It also will be more pleasing esthetically, he added.

Hampton said she could not provide a construction timetable other than to say the promise of completion by June 30, 2004, still holds. A fund-raising drive to accumulate the $3 million ‘community’s share’ of the $10 million project is now set for next autumn. There may be some spadework done among area foundations before then, but the semiannual ‘season’ for applying for foundation grants is about over.

Although county officials have referred to the new facility as a regional library, it is expected that most of its patronage will come from Brandywine Hundred residents.