Phoenix will move 24/7 cooling centers, including at Burton Barr Library, to single new location

Phoenix plans to open a new facility for 24/7 heat relief and extend hours at some libraries this summer. The updates were included in the city’s Heat Response Plan, which Phoenix’s City Council approved this week.

Phoenix opened a 24-hour cooling center for the first time last year at Burton Barr Library and offered overnight cooling hours at its Senior Opportunities West senior center, south of downtown. Those sites had thousands of visits.

But Phoenix Office of Heat Response and Mitigation director David Hondula said those two sites will not operate that way again this summer.

“We’re proposing to consolidate the 24/7 and overnight efforts into one facility,” Hondula told the City Council this week.

The city plans to lease a 20,000-square-foot warehouse facility downtown at Central Avenue and Jackson Streeet, which officials say will have enough capacity to handle all of the traffic the other two sites had last year.

The city also plans to keep three Phoenix library branches open daily until 10 p.m. from May through September this year. The Cholla, Harmon and Yucca libraries stayed open late last summer, but only as heat-relief sites. Hondula said this year, those branches will stay open with full library services.

“Not only does it continue to provide essential heat relief for the community but expands the indoor air conditioned resources available for residents and families who are looking for things to do in cool space during our long hot summer,” Hondula said.

All of the city’s heat relief efforts this year will cost about $4.9 million, which will come from federal pandemic relief funds, opioid settlement money, and funding from Maricopa County Public Health.