Thirteen-year-old Kayla Brown, who uses Penrose Library all the time to do her online schoolwork, likes that the teen section where she plunks down at the downtown branch is quiet and peaceful.

The environment helps her concentrate, she said Monday.

“It’s going to be a little hard for me at home because it’s a bit noisy there,” Kayla said.

For the next two months, her parents, John Brown and Jennifer Maloney, said they will be more mindful of their daughter’s needs to get her assignments completed.

“She likes to come here because we’re not constantly in her face,” her dad said.

After Wednesday, Penrose Library at 20 N. Cascade Ave., will be closed through April 1 for safety and security renovations, officials announced earlier this month.

Some patrons said on Monday they’ll have to adjust to using other nearby branches, such as the Old Colorado City or the Cheyenne Mountain libraries.

Books checked out at one branch can be returned to any of the 16 branches in the Pikes Peak Library District system, officials said.

Ian Sowerby said he likes to stop by Penrose Library to spend time with his friends. The meeting rooms are free to use, he said, and copies are free up to $7 worth.

“If you want to talk to people, it’s a good area to chill, hang out and meet new people,” he said. “There aren’t many free places you can go especially in this area — there’s pretty much the park or the library.”

Some users are concerned about what will happen to homeless people who stay at the library during the day. Although rules prevent people from sleeping inside the library, people who don’t have a permanent residence can sit in chairs or at computers and charge their phones, view materials, search for jobs online or communicate electronically.

“It’s going to be harder for everyone — this is a safe place for people who are going through stuff, so it will be different for them,” Sowerby said.

Athena Iam uses the Penrose Library to do legal research. She doesn’t have transportation, so said she will be taking buses to the East Library while the library is closed. She was visiting the Penrose Library on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)

Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette

Athena Iam said she uses the Penrose Library to do legal research. It’s the only branch with a legal reference section and also has genealogical and history materials.

She doesn’t have transportation, so said she will be taking the city bus to the East Library while Penrose is closed.

“I’m pretty sure they’re doing this to get the homeless out,” Iam said. “It’s kind of sad — there’s not really other places for the homeless to go during the day.”

The nearby Marian House soup kitchen offers free daily lunches and related services for indigent people, such as health care and employment assistance.

And Springs Rescue Mission, the city’s largest homeless-services campus that’s about half an hour away on foot, has a day center where people who sign up can sit during the day and do laundry, take showers, use computers and meet with caseworkers.

But it’s not the same as being able to enjoy free time at the library, said Iam, who recently got back into housing.

“Closing the library is going to displace a lot of people who are in a temporary situation and need to have a safe place they can go,” she said. “It seems like they shouldn’t have to close for two months.”

Shutting down to the public for March and April is necessary to make changes during the initial phase of remodeling that will continue throughout this year, Chief Librarian and CEOB Teona Shainidze-Krebs told The Gazette three weeks ago.

The first stage will lower the height of bookshelves to provide more visibility and give the interior a more contemporary look, she said.

Subsequent work will include installing boulders to protect the exterior of the building, remodeling the computer lab, creating areas for people to temporarily store personal belongings, replacing electrical outlets with a charging station, replacing and rearranging tables and chairs, moving staff desks to more prominent locations throughout the building, updating security hardware and installing fencing under stairwells and around the outside perimeter.

More than 200 safety incidents have occurred in the past nine months, according to the library’s security leader Michael Brantner.

Trespassing, vandalism, theft, fighting and building intrusion have occurred, as well as people being disruptive to other patrons, engaging in criminal activity on the property, sleeping overnight on library grounds, not complying with staff direction, tampering with alarms and other unacceptable behavior, Brantner has said.

Penrose and other libraries were forced to close for a time during the pandemic, officials noted. Penrose also closed last year for a period while methamphetamine residue had to be cleaned from restrooms.

A line of people often forms outside Penrose in the mornings before the building opens at 9 a.m., especially when temperatures are low or it’s snowing or raining.

Iam said Penrose is familiar and comfortable for many people.

“A lot of the homeless people who come here are trying to stay out of trouble,” she said. “I feel for the people.”

Kayla Brown, 13, will miss having the Penrose Library open, because she goes there to do online school. She said that it is more quiet than her home and no distractions. She was visiting the library with her father, John Brown, on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette)

Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette