Just a few years ago, soybeans grew on this 20-acre tract at 9110 Giles Road, located across from the Tara Hills Golf Course.  But, the soybeans have yielded to a vision that grew from a need to provide public services and yet conserve taxes.

The mayor of LaVista, Harold "Andy" Anderson, the president of Metropolitan Community College, J. Richard Gilliland, and other officials began collaborating on a joint building project in 1993.  Both Gilliland and Anderson faced the need to build a larger facility to replace current facilities.

The 25-year-old LaVista library was overflowing at the small 4,000 square foot facility at 8114 Park View Boulevard.  Similarly, Metro's Sarpy County Center at 84th Street and Brentwood Drive had reached its capacity of 1,200 students as soon as it opened in 1993.

To avoid the cost of building seperate facilities, Metro and LaVista agreed to pool their resources and build a $9.1 million educational center/public library that would serve multiple purposes.

Metro paid $5.2 million of the project through tuition, fees and state and local tax revenue.  LaVista paid $3.9 million of the project through the city's keno revenues without the use of property tax dollars.

A ground breaking ceremony was held on a chilly day in November 1997.

Construction proceeded in stages on the neo-Italian Renaissance style building and ended in 1999.  Classes began in September at the Sarpy Center and the LaVista Public Library opened in December.

Sarpy Center
The new Sarpy Center exemplifies Metro Community College's mission of offering affordable, convenient and quality srevices and programs to all residents of its service area.

Located in the heart of one of the fastest growing counties in Nebraska, the Metro Sarpy Center offers easy access to educational services to Gretna, LaVista, Millard, Ralston, Papillion and southwest Omaha residents.  The center contains 15 classrooms, three computer/electronic laboratories, conference rooms and faculty and administrative offices.

Metro students at the Sarpy Center will enjoy some of the best computer resources in Omaha, with more than 250 computers available in classrooms and computer laboratories.  Students can surf the World Wide Web, register for credit classes, access their grades and view a class schedule, all online.  The College also offers e-mail access to all students enrolled in credit classes.

More than 150 credit and non-credit classes in computer programming and microcomputer technology are regularly offered.  And, credit classes in other areas are available, too.  These classes include business, humanities, criminal justice, electronics, math, paralegal - legal assistant and Spanish.

The Sarpy Center is open seven days a week for classes and offers a full range of services, including counseling, financial aid, academic advising, bookstore, computer laboraroties, library, testing center and cashiering.

The City of LaVista Public Library
The new City of LaVista Public Library combines the best of technology with the friendliest use of space and materials to give its patrons a place they will truly want to be.

Patrons can sit around the fireplace and choose to read from the 35,000 books or 130 periodicals available.  The library also offers 965 videos, 240 compact discs and more than 510 books on tape.

The library has a large reference area with several CD-ROM based information systems and a computer lab, which has 14 computers with Internet stations.  In the three study rooms, power ports allow patrons to plug in their lap top computers.  Patrons can check out the library holdings through the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) computers, located throughout the library.

Metro students at the Sarpy Center can access library materials here, also.  Books, periodicals and videos will be on reserve for classes.  Metro students can also recieve materials from other campus libraries through the interlibrary loan.

High technology, high touch also rules the children's area located in the southwest part of the library,  Four OPAC computers and six CD-ROM based stations nestle next to two large beanbag caterpiller worms where children can sit and read a favorite book or periodical.

The Mary Louise Anderson Storytime Room is nearly six times larger than the storytime room in the former library.  Preschoolers can listen to a story or work on a craft here.  Summer reading activities in June and July will occur in the large meeting room.

A meeting room that can hold 200 people and a boardroom for 16 people complete the library.  A fullsize kitchen serves this area.

Reprinted from the brochure "A Building of Opportunities" by permission of the LaVista Public Library and Metro Sarpy Center