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Kamas facilities building nears completion

Soft opening scheduled for December

A rendering shows what the Summit County Services Building is expected to look like once it is complete in December. A grand opening and ribbon cutting is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 11.
(Courtesy of Summit County)

A new chapter is set to begin for Kamas Valley library users as Summit County’s $5.9 million service building nears completion.

The new 18,000-square-foot facility will house the Kamas branch of the Summit County Library, as well as offices for the Department of Motor Vehicles and county medical services, such as the Health Department and Valley Behavioral Health. Other amenities will include a new South Summit Senior Center, a 1,900-square-foot space for public meetings and an 800-square-foot computer classroom.

The county plans to hold a soft opening for the community in December, with a grand opening and open house scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 11, from 4 to 8 p.m.

“It’s going to be a community gathering space like South Summit has never had before,” said Dan Compton, director of the Summit County Library. “It is everything we want a model library to be. We want it to be a community gathering space that people can utilize. I’m so excited.”

The building was originally expected to open in August, but the start of construction was delayed last year after bids came in nearly $1 million over budget. The completion was pushed back to November and, again, December. The county had allocated $5.5 million for the project and later agreed to increase the budget $400,000.

“We were thinking November, but now it’s looking like it will be December,” Compton said. “We were getting sick of wondering what was going to happen so we have been talking with the architect and construction company. We told them we need to set dates.”

The services that were housed in the county’s facilities building were relocated to temporary locations throughout Kamas after the building was demolished. The library was relocated to the Kamas Health Center building, next door to the Food Town shopping center.

The temporary location of the Kamas library will close Thursday, Nov. 9, as staff prepares to move the book collection into the new space, Compton said. Half of the library’s collection has been in storage while the building is under construction.

“We are going to be prepping the current temporary location to move during that week,” Compton said. “We plan to start moving the week of Thanksgiving, if possible. We just finished boxing up the collection that has been in a storage and we are ready to move.”

Beginning Oct. 26, any materials that are checked out from the Kamas library won’t be due until Jan. 2, Compton said. He said materials can also be returned to the other branches or via a drop box, located at 228 W. 200 S. in the Food Town Plaza.

Compton, who has been Summit County’s Library director since 2011, said he has been fighting for the new space since he was hired. He added, “It is really hitting home right now and I am so excited and so proud for what we have been able to accomplish.”

“It’s going to be amazing,” he said. “It’s going to be a really nice little civic campus right by City Hall. It will be great for that whole valley.”


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