Baldwin Borough Public Library employees will finally have a place to call their own after spending 20 years at a shared location.

Baldwin Library Board purchased one and a half acres of property along Churchview Avenue from St. Albert the Great Church for $160,000 in late April.

It will serve as the site of the borough's new library, replacing the current location -- a few rooms of Baldwin-Whitehall School District's Wallace Building.

"We've kind of outgrown this space here," library Director Joyce Chiappetta said. "The school district can't give us any more room. This building isn't getting any younger."

Initial plans for the new library include a 10,000 square-foot building and 40-car parking lot, board President LaVerne Oberle said.

Oberle said the library would likely cost more than $1 million to complete.

The building will be constructed using only donated funds -- the board expects to use no borough money,

Library officials established a capital campaign fund, which is in the first year of its five-year plan.

Oberle said board officials are discussing how they plan to raise money. She is concerned the lack of businesses in the borough will make it difficult to solicit large-scale donations.

"It's going to be tough sledding; it's going to be a lot of work," Oberle said. "We're going to need some help."

Library officials thought they had solidified plans for a new library location 10 years ago. Plans were made to build an extension off the administrative side of the borough municipal building.

The plan fell through after officials attained a $300,000 Keystone grant, which required matching funds from the borough.

Council put the fund-matching proposal on a referendum; approval entailed a 2-mill increase on property taxes, Oberle said.

Residents rejected the proposal, and the library plans stalled.

This time around, library officials spent almost two years negotiating the Churchview Avenue property with the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese. While negotiating, officials also checked other potential locations, but to no avail.

"We were looking anywhere and everywhere to find something suitable," Chiappetta said.

"There was no property available for a building of that size," Oberle said.

Diocese officials finally approved the property's sale in April. All profit will go toward St. Albert the Great's capital improvement fund, which aims to finance repairs to the church's roof and remodeling of the church's offices, which are currently located inside Bishop McDowell Regional School.

The church's former parish house, which sits on the sold property, is scheduled for demolition later this week or early next week.

The Rev. Jim Orr said the diocese declared his former residence and the church's former offices -- a structure predating the turn of the 20th century -- as uninhabitable last spring. St. Albert officials moved the offices out in July. He moved out in October.

"My predecessors said something needed to be done, and they weren't talking about repairs," Orr said. "They were all kind of saying 'Tear it down,' so this is about 20 years in the making."

Oberle described the library's current location as unsuitable as well. A survey of Baldwin residents taken last year justified her beliefs, Oberle said.

"We found the biggest problem was the location and that it was old," she said. "People were going to Brentwood and Whitehall."

At around 4,000 square feet and divided into three rooms, Oberle said the current location is difficult to regulate and also limits the services and programming library employees can provide.

"It's not really the best environment," she said.