New South St. Paul library named for Mdewakanton Dakota

Pamela Rettler, of Inver Grove Heights, used one of the computers at the South St. Paul Public Library to print some documents Tuesday morning. ] AARON LAVINSKY • aaron.lavinsky@startribune.com South St. Paul has proposed that its city-owned and funding library join the Dakota County Library system and has offered the county the current library site to build a new, 16,000 square-foot library. Though there are many more steps in the process, this acknowledgement marks a definitive direction for the ongoing library debate in the city. That debate centered on whether to remodel or tear down the existing library, whether the city library should become part of the county system and if so, where a new library might go. The county will choose a designer for the new library; construction costs are estimated at $6m. The county is looking for funding help from the state. We photograph patrons and operations at the South St. Paul Public Library on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in South st. Paul, Minn. (Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)