"Today we are opening a much needed third space in Etna to learn, to share and to gather together as neighbors," Etna Community Organization executive director Megan Tuñón said on Saturday, Oct. 17, according to TribLive's coverage of the ribbon cutting.
On that Saturday the building was about 90% finished. TribLive reported that the library was expected to open to the public in November, with hours Tuesday through Saturday to start and Sunday hours added in 2027. November is here, so the ribbon cutting has given way to ordinary days, and the Etna Center for Community at 341-343 Butler St. is about to take its place on a block that already had a reason to visit.
The block around the building already draws people. CoStar Brewing is a few doors down at 323 Butler St., and Pollak's Candies is across the way at 352 Butler St. Until now, the places on this stretch where you could sit down and stay were mostly places where you buy something. The library is a free room with a full-time librarian in the middle of them.
Ten Years From a Suggestion Made in Millvale
The idea came from a neighboring library. Mayor Robert Tuñón told TribLive that longtime Etna Mayor Tom Rengers first said Etna needed a library of its own while he was at the library in Millvale in 2016. Here is how the decade that followed played out.
- 2017. The Etna Community Organization and the borough began working toward a library, an effort that grew out of the Etna EcoDistrict planning process.
- December 9, 2021. ECO, Etna Borough, Millvale Borough and Millvale Community Library signed an agreement to plan a shared "Rivertown Library System."
- August 31, 2022. ECO bought the historic Ochse Building at 341-343 Butler St.
- April 11, 2025. ECO announced a $4.2 million construction contract with Volpatt Construction.
- July 11, 2025. Groundbreaking.
- October 17, 2026. Ribbons were cut, followed by a street fair on Locust Street that ran alongside the annual Haunted Garden of Etna.
- November 2026. Public opening expected, with hours Tuesday through Saturday.
The building was there long before any of this. Ochse Hall dates to the 1870s and was built by one of Etna's founding families. In ECO's account of the purchase, it originally held businesses and a social hall. A storefront building on the main street is going back to being a place where people gather.
Who Paid for a Library in a Small River Borough
The money is the reason the project took ten years. In its April 2025 story on the construction contract, TribLive reported that funding as of the prior November totaled just under $6 million. That total included $3 million in federal funding, $1.5 million from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, $500,000 from the Multipurpose Community Facilities Program, $400,000 from the Local Share Account, about $174,000 from the state Gaming Economic Development Tourism Fund, and $100,000 from a Keystone Communities Grant.
Buying the building was paid for separately, and on a much smaller scale. ECO's 2022 account lists $335,000 for the acquisition: $175,000 from Allegheny County's Gaming Economic Development Tourism Fund, $100,000 from the Henry L. Hillman Foundation, $31,000 from four local families, $25,000 from the state Neighborhood Partnership Program, and $4,000 from the Triboro Ecodistrict.
Public money is also going into the street outside. In August 2026, Pennsylvania's Department of Community and Economic Development announced that Etna had received a $153,421 Main Street Matters award. Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and DCED Secretary Rick Siger visited Cop Out Pierogies, Pollak's Candies and CoStar Brewing on that trip. In the state's release, Davis tied the program to "investing in stronger infrastructure, and safer and easier parking options." The library and the business district were funded in the same years, and the three businesses on the tour are the library's neighbors.
What's Inside Ochse Hall
The library takes up the ground floor. ECO hired a full-time librarian, Josh Seybert, and a program coordinator, Sophie Kachur. ECO said the librarian would provide books, programs and resources, and the coordinator would build activities and services.
Two spaces were named on opening day. The courtyard behind the building is the Rengers Courtyard, dedicated to Tom Rengers and his family. The great room, a new single-story addition at the back, was dedicated to Pete and Mary Ellen Ramage. TribLive reported that the Ramage dedication was a surprise that morning. The courtyard opens toward 54 Locust St., where the ribbon cutting took place.
The two upper floors hold four one-bedroom apartments, which Tuñón said would be available to rent beginning in November.
As of late October, the library's exact weekly hours and borrowing details had not been posted. The Etna Community Organization's website is the place to check before your first visit. The 2021 agreement with Millvale described plans for shared services and was not a description of how library cards work today.
The Block Around It
The library opens into a short walk that already has its regulars:
| Address | What's there | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| 323 Butler St. | CoStar Brewing | Taproom welcomes outside food and lists local takeout picks |
| 341-343 Butler St. | Etna Center for Community | Library expected to open in November, Tuesday through Saturday |
| 352 Butler St. | Pollak's Candies | Third-generation chocolate maker, open Monday through Saturday |
CoStar's food setup ties it to the rest of town. Along with hosting food trucks, the brewery lets guests bring their own food and points them to nearby takeout, including Cop Out Pierogies, Rising Crust Pizza, Reno's Deli, E-Town, Porky's, Il Forno Pizza and Rear Ends. Its event calendar also listed the Etna Community Library grand-opening event in October.
Pollak's runs on a daytime schedule: Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Sunday. If the library's Tuesday-through-Saturday hours run during the day, they'll overlap with the candy counter for most of the week. In February 2026, WESA reported that the shop's popular items include chocolate-dipped caramel pecans, coconut clusters and fruit-jelly chocolates. The company told WESA that its Christmas sales had gone up and that high cocoa costs had led it to raise prices. Holiday orders will run into those same cocoa prices this year.
December Thursdays on Butler Street
CoStar has three Holiday Movie Nights on the calendar, on Thursdays Dec. 3, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17, each starting at 6 p.m. Pollak's closes at 4 p.m. on weekdays, so a Thursday on Butler Street could mean an afternoon at the library and the candy counter and an evening at the brewery, once the library posts its hours.
Thursdays are busy one borough over, too. Les Murphy, who spent 12 years as executive chef at Bigham Tavern on Mount Washington, opened Murph's Kitchen this year inside Strange Roots Experimental Ales at 501 E. Ohio St. in Millvale. As of the Post-Gazette's August review, he had added a 75-cent wing special on Thursdays to bring in business on a usually slow night. Also in Millvale, NEXTpittsburgh reported in September that Abeille Voyante Tea Co. moved to 303 Grant Ave., in the space of a former yarn shop, where it sells tea, vegan-friendly food and local goods.
Millvale and Etna are tied together in this story. Rengers got the idea at Millvale's library, and the two boroughs signed a library-planning agreement in 2021. Each borough now has its own library, within a short drive of the other.
Once ECO posts the library's opening date and hours, the first week to plan around is a Tuesday-through-Saturday one, with the Rengers Courtyard out back and Pollak's across the street.
At the Beth Danchek Group, we keep track of new places like this around the Shaler Area communities because they're part of everyday life for the families we work with. If you'd like to talk about Etna, Shaler or Millvale, or about what's changing on your own block, we'd be glad to hear from you. Contact us today.