Fulton Buys Dinsmore Farm for Milton Library

UPDATED 4:20 p.m.: Fulton Commissioner Liz Hausmann said the library branch will be sited in the center of what will become Milton's downtown centre.

Crabapple will be home to the new Milton Library branch after Fulton County Commissioners OK'd spending $1.1 million to buy property at the corner of Charlotte Drive and Mayfield Road.

Commissioner Liz Hausmann's motion to buy the Imogene Dinsmore estate property passed unanimously during a meeting on June 6.

Hausmann said the location is in the heart of the area Milton has chosen as its future downtown. And it's near three schools: , and .

"It's geographically in North Fulton well placed" compared to locations of other library branches, she said.

Designs will be prepared beginning next month. Once completed, community meetings will be held. Construction should begin in Spring 2013. And if all goes well and the weather cooperates, the new library branch should open in spring 2014, Hausmann said.

The 25,000-square-foot Milton branch of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System is part of a $275 million building program funded by a bond referendum approved by county voters in 2008. This branch, Alpharetta's replacement library branch to be built on its Center Center property and an East Roswell branch are among the eight new libraries in Phase I of the program. Phase I has a $167 million budget. The initial estimate for construction of the Milton branch was just over $7 million, the same as Alpharetta's estimate.

Milton City Council member Karen Thurman pleased those Milton business and community leaders at the Crabapple Community Association's June 14 meeting at , a block away from the library site.

"They approved the purchase of the property, which is the old Dinsmore farm, at the corner of Charlotte and Mayfield, for the Milton library," Thurman said. "They have approved the architects and engineering. And they have approved the construction contractor."

She said the library system will be getting a lot of input from the community to make sure it is a Milton-type library.

The library system first took input from Milton residents on what they wanted in a lilbrary. All of those comments were provided to the architects, who will use them in making plans, Hausmann said. Once the designs are completed, the public again will get to comment on if the community's needs are being met.

The Milton library branch will serve residents of the city, and those in west Alpharetta west Roswell, Thurman said.

Hausmann said the location, on a corner lot, offers opportunities for access. Milton's plans to improve transportation in its downtown will help the library also.