Library site work underway

Much-anticipated work at the site of the future Fort Frances Public Library and Technology Centre started this week, with construction scheduled to continue for the next seven-eight months for an opening early next spring.
Chief librarian Margaret Sedgwick, who was on site yesterday to take a few photos for posterity as well as watch the excavation begin, said it’s a joy to see the $5 million project finally underway.

“The staff are really excited,” Sedgwick remarked, adding library patrons have been coming in to share congratulatory remarks since the decision to build became official a couple of weeks ago.
“There’s an air of celebration,” she noted.
“It’s been a lengthy process—15 years and certainly three years of very strong and concentrated effort to get this point, said library board member Mark Kowalchuk, who also chaired the hugely-successful “Building for the Future” fundraising campaign.
“It’s nice to see it moving ahead,” he remarked.
“It’s a certainty now,” Kowalchuk added. “We went through some troubling times, we went through some scary times, but we’re moving on and are very optimistic about how things are going to progress.
And the builders are, as well—there’s some speculation that it is going to be done sooner than anticipated.
“I am excited that earlier in the spring [2010], we could be looking at moving books over and furniture, and opening for business come April,” he enthused.
While passing motorists and pedestrians no doubt will be keeping an eye on the progress of the new facility in the coming months, the library also plans to keep the public up-to-date through its website at library.fort-frances.com
Sedgwick said the plan is to have a blog on the website, informing Internet-users of the progress of the construction.
As well, project manager Brian Avis will take a sequence of photos to demonstrate the changing face of the site, which is located just east of the Memorial Sports Centre.
The general contractor is Aurora Construction, with several subcontractors, including some local ones, working on various aspects of the project.
Sedgwick, meanwhile, said now that construction has begun, library staff have to start thinking about making the big move next spring.
“We have a lot of work to do to plan the move,” she stressed.
“We are probably going to make the move a community event. We have a few ideas,” she added, noting the “number of items we have to move is mind-boggling.”
Sedgwick reiterated there’s many details to sort out in anticipation of operating at the new location, right down to ordering new library cards with the facility’s new
address on it—601 Reid Ave.
As well, library staff also are looking at vendors for a self-checkout system, which future patrons will be able to use to check out their own books.
Once a system is chosen, staff can get to work tagging resource materials prior to the move.
In related news, the “Building for the Future” campaign now exceeds $850,000, with the public welcome to continue to donate.
“People are making donations,” said Kowalchuk. “Some people were holding out after the April vote not to go ahead with it [the library].
“Now they’re coming in.”
While there’s enough money in place to build the new facility, thanks to the generous outpouring from the community, as well as numerous federal and provincial grants, Kowalchuk noted further funds will be used to buy new furnishings or enhance the landscaping, for example.
Kowalchuk said prior to the launch of the “Building for the Future” campaign a couple of years ago, organizers were speaking with another fundraising group, which told them to expect several stages of donations over the course of the project—at the start of the campaign, when construction begins, and once the library opens.
He added it’s important to note that those wanting to make pledges do so in the next six-eight months because shortly after the new library opens in the spring, a donor wall will be put up there.
“Because there is a $500 bottom limit on that, now people are starting to increase their pledges in order to ensure their names will appear on the wall,” Kowalchuk said.
“We see some other folks also moving up the different categories—they came in at the $500 level and now they’re making sure that over time, they can bump that up,” he added.
“Once that wall is up, it is set permanently—we won’t be changing it a year-and-a-half down the road,” he stressed.
“People know this and they are making sure they’re addressing this opportunity while it is still available to them.”
Inquire at the Fort Frances Public Library for more information on making a donation.