After 11-month process, Wichita picks familiar name for renovated north-side library
After 11 months of public input and a ranked-choice vote on renaming the renovated Evergreen library, the Wichita City Council on Tuesday went with the choice of the people.
Evergreen.
The council voted unanimously to name the library and a co-located recreation center the Evergreen Community Center and Library.
That actually represented a change — proposed in the meeting Tuesday by council member Cindy Claycomb — from the Library Board’s recommendation that it be called the Evergreen Branch Library and Community Center.
It took a lot of work to get there.
In December, the council tasked the Library Board with coming up with a name that reflected the “vibrancy and character of the community it serves,” according to a staff report.
The library, at 2700 N. Woodland, is in the El Pueblo neighborhood, which is largely Latino.
From late April to late June, a board committee invited residents to submit name suggestions for the renovated facility. Those were narrowed by the board to five finalists, four in Spanish. Evergreen was the only English word that made the cut.
From July 21 to Aug. 31, residents were invited to vote for their favorites in a ranked-choice ballot, where they listed their choices one through five. All voting materials were bilingual.
“We wanted to make sure we engaged all parts of the community,” said Jonathan Winkler, the chairman of the Library Board committee tasked with trying to rename the facility. “We were struck by how strong ‘Evergreen’ was.”
Forty-one percent of voters in the poll named it their top choice and it came in with the highest score, 3.62 out of a possible five.
The runners up:
▪ El Pueblo, meaning the village, score 3.26.
▪ El Norte, meaning the north, score 3.06.
▪ Arteaga, for Cirilo Arteaga, who led efforts to create a recreation center in the El Pueblo neighborhood, score 2.8.
▪ Adelante, which means move forward, score 2.63.
Despite coming back around to essentially the starting point, the exercise wasn’t a waste of time, said Mayor Brandon Whipple.
“Sometimes, after doing community outreach, communities build upon what’s familiar,” he said. “Even though the results might not have changed, it shows that the process is properly thorough to actually come back and not recommend any significant changes.
“Change for the sake of change is never enough.”
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 6:59 AM.
