One day a couple of years ago, Barbara Franzosa sat in a restaurant in Pine Point Plaza in Albrightsville and mentioned to the owner how much she missed the public library near her former home.

"Two people at other tables said we miss our libraries, too. So I said, well, should we try to start one? And they said yes," she said.On Saturday, after much planning and hard work, the Penn-Kidder Library Center opened in its new home in the plaza on Route 903 near the intersection with Route 534."This is like a dream come true," Franzosa said.The library includes a craft area, adult and children's sections, a quiet reading room, and gently used jewelry and used books for sale. It's open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and from 4-6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays.Janice Carlo of Albrightsville brought her granddaughter, Skyla Hendricks, 6, to the opening."It's really nice. They're doing a wonderful thing with this," she said as Skyla played in the children's section.Carlo is happy to have a library close to home."With the price of gas, this really helps us out a lot," she said.The opening festivities included guitar playing by Chayton G. Woods and book-signing by Gene Duffy of Jim Thorpe.Until recently, the library was housed in a 670-square-foot trailer about 150 feet from the new location, which is three times as large as the trailer."We had about 5,000 books in our collection in the trailer," Franzosa said. "It worked fine for people taking books out."But organizers wanted to have programs for both children and adults, from Legos to origami to yoga, and that required more space.The tenant of the space the library now occupies had closed, and organizers began selling used books and flea market items there to support the library. In March, Franzosa, who owns the plaza, approached the library board about moving in.The group was making money from the used book and flea market sales. It held a charity fundraiser on July 1, auctioning 50 chairs transformed by a local artist into creative pet beds, a children's play kitchen and other whimsical pieces. That raised about $6,000, enough to give the library a financial cushion."That allowed us to rent this space," Franzosa said. "We want a year's cushion, so during that year we raise the money for the next year."They are also establishing a capital account to save money to build a library.The library has a two-year lease at Pine Point Plaza, paid for through the used book, flea market and jewelry sales, along with other fundraisers. The library receives no government money.It is centrally located among the four surrounding public libraries, each about 14 miles away in Jim Thorpe, Brodheadsville, White Haven and Pocono Pines."And in the winter, they are treacherous miles," Franzosa said.The library, close to the Penn Forest-Kidder line, is also close to several residential developments."We want to make sure we're accessible to everybody," she said.To learn more about the programs and classes, visit the library's website at

www.pennkidderlibrary.com or call 570-722-0300.