Polar Ice Caps or New Library?

With the white roofing materials, the blue tarps and the foggy background, the new and improved Richland Public Library resembles a polar ice field these days. In these pictures, it looks like a great place to ice skate! You can see how the clerestory windows will look and the upstairs reading area. The cold and blurry days have not slowed down our construction crew who have been hard at work finishing up the roofing and working on sheetrocking and insulating some of the office areas inside - they are beginning to look like offices now instead of jail cells.

The team, along with library staff will be taking a couple of extra days off this week to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends. A reminder to library patrons - the library will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, but will re-open Saturday morning at 9:30 if you are in need of a book.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and just think - next year we will have a brand new library to be thankful for! A note for the little ones in your family - Santa will make an appearance on Wednesday, December 3rd from 4:00-5:00 p.m. You may get a picture taken with Santa for a canned food donation or $2 per photo.

Lisa

Winter Blues

It certainly is looking like winter now. Grey skies, drippy rain, and winter chills. Fortunately, the weather will not stop the few, the proud, the Construction dudes and dudettes of the Richland Public Library!

Things are slowly beginning to take shape. In the existing building some of the windows are starting to be installed. Blocking and backing is still going on, and drywall will being once the in-wall work is complete.

On the new addition, the metal framing is almost all done and the roofing is still ongoing, weather permitting.

On the site itself, they are working hard to get the ground graded and compacted, but the overall nasty weather has caused some issues with getting the grounds ready for paving.

We are still in business over at 1270 Lee Blvd. Today, the tinkling voices of little children could be heard over in the story circle during the library's Thanksgiving program. We still have Gunner and Phoebe who come in during the week for kids to read to them. Story times, computer use, wonderful new books to read... all of this is still available in the temp location. If you're in town, drop by and say hi to the front desk staff. We love to hear from our patrons!

Theresa

Rain rain go away...

The rain is putting quite a damper on progress at the building site. Our crews have been unable to get the ground prepared for paving the new parking lot. Right now, they have to wait until the ground dries out before they can continue grading and compacting the area. We still think the lot will be poured before winter sets in, but it won't be as soon as we hoped.

However, that does not mean our people have been sitting on their hands doing nothing. Au contraire mes amis! The crew has been hard at work completing the preliminary framing of the second story, roofing the new addition, installing the insulation (try saying that five times fast!), and, not unlike our neighborhood squirrels, storing many supplies inside the building to work on during the cold winter months. (not that we think our crew is squireley in any way!) The once exterior art wall has been unveiled again, and is now a feature wall on the interior of the building in the lobby.

Our library staff is also hard at work finalizing the furniture bid packet, and argu... er I mean discussing the different options for our personal work spaces. Let me let you in on a little secret. Librarians, while an altogether wonderful, intelligent and quite fashionable (well, some of us are) crowd are apt to be a wee bit er.. stubborn, when it comes to getting things done THEIR way. Which, of course, is the RIGHT way, but still, I'm just saying.

We are still awaiting the arrival of our windows. They have partially come in, and soon (hopefully) we will have those installed as well. Our crew on site are doing their best to make this a beautiful and very functional building, and we can't thank them enough for all they have done for us. Cookies for everyone!

Theresa

Same old same old...

Well, there is nothing really I can update you on this week. The building is progressing, the windows are still being waited on, the framing and roofing continues, and the parking lot is still being worked on.

And, since I am off the clock in about 30 minutes, I will close this blog entry with bunches of neato pictures you can ooh and aah over!

PS --- we're still a happening joint in the temp space. We have bunches of programs coming up, and on Wednesday mornings, if you are a person of more advanced age, you might want to drop by and try out the library Wii. Staff will be happy to play a gam... er demonstrate the wonders of the Wii generation!

Theresa

PPS - dig the blue cast to the pictures -- we're not sure why they turned out blue, but it's quite a nice little artistic touch!