Cars, murals, layoffs: What Hialeah’s museum plan could mean for the JFK library

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Library in the main corridor in Hialeah could soon look very different.

Hialeah plans to spend $8 million to transform the longtime cultural facility into a combined history museum and library, but the city has yet to provide a clear picture of what the finished building will look like or how much space will remain for the community.

For many residents who rely on the library day to day, the plan feels less like a renovation and more like a loss. Their objections aren’t just about aesthetics or inconvenience. They question what the building is supposed to serve, why the city chose the library for a museum and how a project of this size moved forward before residents have seen a final design.

“The JFK is like a piece of Hialeah’s cultural heritage,” said Yeni Iglesias, whose 9-year-old son Liam uses the library every week for private tutoring in reading.

She said she was upset by the plans to combine the library with a museum. She and her son use JFK weekly, but they also use the library branch at Curtiss Park. Because of Curtiss’ limited hours, she said, she also relies on JFK.

The branch libraries are open only four hours a day, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday. On Fridays and Saturdays, only the JFK location is open.

“I’m very, very sad with the information that the city is going to open a museum. A museum of what? A library is what’s needed, is what was always there,” Iglesias said.

Her worry doesn’t stop at the renovation itself. She sees it as a possible first domino.

“I’m worried they might tomorrow as well say, hold on, we’re going to close this library too,” she said, a fear that a temporary closure for construction could eventually become permanent, and that the other five branches could face the same treatment down the line.

A portion of history

Phil Secada was a kid when he saw the construction and opening of the JFK Library. Now 71, the longtime Hialeah resident and former mayoral candidate, who also served on Hialeah’s personnel board years ago, said the reasoning behind choosing JFK specifically for the transformation is still not clear to him.

The JFK Library opened its doors in 1965 and has undergone several major renovations and improvements over the years.

“I have no idea what he has in mind,” Secada said, referring to Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo. “All I know is that the library has been here in the city since I was 10 years old. I just think that there’s a better way. It could be elsewhere. JFK was never designed for a museum.”

Secada said residents should have a role in deciding what happens to the library.

“The solution is to put this up before the voters and let then decide if we keep the library as it is, or whatever the voters decide,” Secada said. “It gives everybody a chance to have a discussion. That’s the American way.”

Ten years ago, JFK added study rooms, security cameras, new furniture and computers, remodeled public restrooms and installed permanent murals and sculptures by local artists. The work cost around $700,000. More recently, the city completed several projects, including a new roof, walkway repairs, renovated family restrooms and a new Local History Room to house the Hialeah History Archive.

What’s the plan?

The general plan is to create the museum in the center of the first floor, potentially displaying antique cars owned by the city, along with photographs and paintings. The exterior could also be redesigned, including replacing the existing concrete walls with glass and lighting.

Some of the existing 22 murals could be removed as part of the changes, potentially including the mural depicting Don Quixote.

The administration hasn’t provided it a clear answer on what is going to be removed and what would remain, but the city has told the Miami Herald that the plans are not yet definitive. There is no final blueprint for the project.

However, the city has proposed an $8 million investment for the transformation, while the details of how the space will ultimately be redesigned remain to be determined. Hialeah is preparing to begin work Oct. 1, after the new budget is fully approved. The city council is scheduled to vote on the allocation on second reading on Sept. 22.

The budget item contains little information about what the $8 million investment will pay for.

Jose Torres, Calvo’s chief of staff, told the Herald that the city arrived at the $8 million figure based on the building’s square footage and what other municipalities have spent on renovations.

Under the proposal, the library would be relocated to the second floor, which is currently a mezzanine.

Calvo called the future museum an “attraction” where schools could take field trips and the public could learn about Hialeah’s history.

On a typical day, the JFK Library serves more than 140 visitors, including students, families, adults and seniors, according to residents familiar with the facility. The library has three study rooms on the first floor, as well as a children’s area with hundreds of books and tables for children and their parents and tutors. The second floor, which is about a third of the size of the main floor, has study table.

The JFK Library is more than a place to borrow books. It provides computers, WiFi, printing and scanning, along with homework help, computer classes, English and citizenship classes, immigration assistance, literary programs and passport services. It also gives residents access to physical and digital collections and assistance with information searches, online applications and other government and community resources.

The city’s other library branches also serve residents throughout Hialeah. According to the proposed budget, the library system recorded 227,579 visits last year, a 40% increase from the previous year.

Since 2024, the JFK Library has served as a location for U.S. passport applications. In that time, more than 1,900 passports have been processed at the library, according to public records. It is not clear where or when the passport office would be relocated.

Torres said the city is working with federal authorities to receive authorization to move the passport office to another Hialeah branch.

“We can’t just pick up the office and move it,” Torres said.

The JFK Library also serves as an election precinct, adding another function that would have to be accommodated during the renovation.

Residents ask for private foundation

Residents who spoke with the Herald questioned why JFK was selected for a museum and whether the city should consider another location.

Milly Herrera, a longtime advocate for preserving Hialeah’s history, supported placing a museum at Hialeah Park, a privately owned property she considers one of the city’s landmarks.

She is not against a museum in principle, but is against creating one by taking space from the library.

“A library is an archival place and a quiet place. A museum would be in a larger building adjacent, better to fund a separate building with private sponsorships or grants,” Herrera said.

She also suggested Amelia Earhart Park, the large park in the area owned by Miami-Dade County, as another possible location for a museum that could serve Hialeah residents.

“We can imagine and do great things where self-interest, greed and corruption do not exist,” Herrera said.

Irene Secada, a media and politics consultant, also questioned the decision to use the JFK Library for the museum.

“It’s ridiculous that the one real library in the city of Hialeah is on the chopping block. Where’s the study that people want a museum?” she said. “Taking away the only library where children go, where adults go. It’s a meeting place.”

She said a museum could be created through a private foundation that raises money and develops a separate site, rather than using an existing public library.

“If they want a museum, most places start a private foundation. They raise money. They get the property, and they build a museum,” she said. “I want to know who’s going to make money off this deal.”

Scaling back

Beyond the museum plan itself, the changes happening to Hialeah’s library system go back further than the current proposal, and they raise a separate question about how much the city is scaling back libraries generally.

Since 2018, Hialeah’s libraries operated as their own independent city department, answering directly to the mayor and council rather than sitting under a larger agency.

That changed in February, shortly after Calvo took office. The city dissolved the stand-alone Department of Public Libraries and folded it into a restructured Parks and Community Engagement Department, which now also oversees Parks and Recreation and Education and Community Services.

Libraries went from being a department in their own right to one function among several within a broader agency, reducing their administrative autonomy.

The library system’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $2.7 million, an increase of $33,800 over the previous year. Approximately 80% of that amount, or $2.2 million, is allocated to salaries for 35 positions. The city, however, is eliminating 18 of those positions effective Oct. 1.

Two days after the first budget meeting, three city officials — Human Resources Director Elsa Jaramillo-Velez, Parks Director William Sanchez and Library Administrator Grisel Torrealbas — met with the 18 part-time employees to tell them their positions were being eliminated. They were given the option to apply for other city jobs, but with no guarantee they’d actually be relocated.

The layoffs are being executed now, ahead of a renovation that Torres himself said isn’t expected to begin until January.

Torres confirmed to the Herald that the part-time positions are being eliminated, attributing it plainly to budget timing. “They are being let go because a new budget cycle is starting.”

When asked why employees were being notified now, even though the proposed budget still lists all positions, he tied the timing to the renovation itself, saying the city needed the budget finalized “to be ready for January, because we expect the designs and the whole process to carry through to that time.”

He also offered his own view on the staffing level driving the cuts.

“In our opinion, having 35 people in the library seems a bit excessive.”

For Vilma Valcarcel, 64, the staffing changes mean losing a job she has held at Hialeah’s libraries for more than four years. She works Monday through Thursday at the North Hialeah Branch at McDonald Park. On Fridays and Saturdays, she works at JFK. She earns $17 an hour and works 29 hours a week.

At North Hialeah, she helps residents with computers and online applications, prints documents and assists people looking for information. Some residents ask librarians to conduct searches for them because they do not know how to do it or simply do not have the time.

When she and the other part-time employees were told their positions were being eliminated, Valcarcel said she felt humiliated and disrespected.

“You get called in for a meeting, and they tell you so lightly, practically leaving you with no options. We don’t want you anymore,” she said. “It didn’t matter, the time you’d put in, your track record, everything you’d done for the library.”

Christopher Garcia, a former library employee who resigned the day after the announcement, said that the library needs improvements, but questioned whether transforming the facility into a museum should be the city’s priority.

“What we’re really lacking is more electrical outlets on the second floor or tutoring services like the Miami-Dade Library offers,” Garcia said. “Why don’t we have that?”

He said the city could have learned more about what the library needs by spending time there before developing the renovation plans.

“These are things you could find out about simply by spending a day at the library,” Garcia said. “It’s a shame that no one, not the city, nor any department, actually did that research or put in that effort when discussing the remodeling plans for our facility and our management.”