The new library garden at Portage Public Library isn’t quite finished yet but is now open for public use. “It’s the beginning of a walkable downtown,” Mayor Austin Bonta said. He proved his point by walking to the outdoor space from his office at City Hall for the ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday.
“How refreshing that was to walk somewhere in our downtown,” he said. His predecessor, Sue Lynch, noted that a bike path will connect the library to the Prairie Duneland Trail, making the library garden even more accessible to pedestrians. “This is a dream come true here,” Lynch said.
Early in the pandemic, Porter County Public Library System Director Jesse Butz asked if the city’s parks department could provide benches for use outside the library. The library offers a robust Wi-Fi signal for use by students and others outside the library as well as inside. “It just kind of evolved,” Lynch said.
“It just started with that dream, and it kind of kept escalating.” “This has been a dream of ours for quite some time,” Butz said. Library Board President Kristy Merritt said she hopes the library garden will be a place of growth, learning and togetherness for the community, Porter County Public Library System director Jesse Butz holds up a sign featuring a rendering of the proposed Portage Library Garden as Portage Mayor Sue Lynch speaks during a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, July 20, 2023.
(Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune) Already, the outdoor venue.
