LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — A newly rebuilt library branch in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, is more than twice as big as its previous version.
On Wednesday, the Mid-Continent Public Library system opened its new Colbern Road Library Center to the public. The center is located at 1000 NE Colbern Road in Lee’s Summit.
The rebuilt library branch boasts a larger kids section, more meeting rooms, seating, co-working/collaboration spaces, a coffee shop run by Post Coffee Company, a community meeting room large enough to hold 240 people and the system’s Square One Small Business Services.
Square One provides free consultations to entrepreneurs and people exploring different careers.
Branch Manager Seth Moses said Lee’s Summit is one of Mid-Continent’s most high-use areas where people appreciate the library.
“It [the library] is sort of like the brain, or the central nervous system, of a community,” Moses said. “In that it holds not just books, but the people who inhabit that community. It’s a really great resource both for reference materials, but also just to connect with your neighbors.”
Rebuilding the library is part of a years-long $113 million plan voters approved in 2016 to renovate or rebuild all the library system’s branches plus build two additional branches, one of which opened in Lee’s Summit last year.
