HARDWICK – Jeudevine Library trustees and staff learned Monday that the library is the recipient of a long hoped for $725,000 grant from the Vermont Department of Libraries (DOL). The grant will allow the library to complete work on the addition’s interior and connect the two buildings.
“I am so excited and so relieved that it’s all going to happen in one piece,” Board of Trustees Chair Daphne Kalmar said. “It really is fantastic that we got the money. We’ll have a completed library by Spring,” though she warned, “we’ll have to be patient.”
Delays in announcing the award will lead to a pause in work beginning next week, after phase one of the project is complete. That phase involved what can be seen now: completing the structure, exterior work and some electrical and plumbing work inside.
With announcement of the award, the addition’s general contractor ReArch of South Burlington, will send out bids for interior work to begin phase two. Those bids will be for subcontractors to supply finished walls, flooring, plumbing, electrical fixtures, millwork and painting, among other work. Once subcontractors are selected, work will be able to proceed to finish all interior spaces on both floors and the addition will be connected to the existing library.
Gene Gravel, operating the excavator, places a granite block on a retaining wall at the Jeudevine Library in Hardwick, September 30 in preparation for laying a patio area connecting the addition to the long-standing library building. The library received a $75,000 grant for outside landscaping that is funding the work.
Kalmar says the library has already collected funds for interior furnishings, but details will depend on having firm figures to complete the interior after bids are received for that work.
The award was part of $15.9 million in competitive grant monies awarded to 14 Vermont public libraries with funding from the U.S. Department of the Treasury through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Library Director Diane Grenkow, speaking about the completed addition, said, “I can’t decide what I’m most excited about.” She says she’s “thrilled we will have a kitchen and all of the possibilities that opens up; after school programs will be able to make snacks together, we can host dinner gatherings and I look forward to having a cookbook potluck where patrons choose recipes from the same book and then gather together to share the meals.”
“I look forward to saying ‘yes’ when people ask if we have space for them to meet with their doctor via telehealth, or take an online class.”
And, perhaps, more importantly, she says, “We look forward to having an easily accessible public bathroom; there will be four of them!
“The thing I’m most excited about may be that the building is going to be accessible for everyone, certainly in terms of mobility, which is something the Jeudevine has never been able to offer, but also in terms of having enough room to welcome many more people at a time to be together in quiet pursuits or conversation.”
“The DOL is excited about this opportunity to support communities around the state by administering the first federal capital funding for Vermont public libraries in 20 years,” said State Librarian and Commissioner of Libraries Catherine Delneo. “A needs assessment conducted by the Department in 2023 reflected a high need for maintenance, repairs, and modernization in public library buildings, many of which are more than 100 years old. Libraries serve as community hubs and this money supports these crucial facilities and the Vermonters that will depend on them well into the future.”
These one-time, substantial grants will address critical building improvements that ensure Vermonters in those communities have continued access to high-speed internet for the purposes of work, education, and health monitoring at their local public libraries.
The COVID-19 health emergency highlighted the critical importance of high-speed internet access to Vermonters, as so many aspects of everyday life–including going to school, working remotely, and attending medical appointments–moved online.
Once the addition is completed and opened to the public, Grenkow says the new entrance will be from West Church Street. Patrons will see the circulation desk as they walk in; a great improvement over the current situation where there is no one to greet visitors when they arrive, she said.
The current library will become the “quiet” space for books and magazines for adults; with comfortable seating to read or work where the adult books are now and in what is currently the children’s room.
“S.R. Raganathan, considered the father of library science, said, ‘. . . every reader should feel the presence of the radiant personality of the librarian,’ we strive for this to be true!” noted Grenkow.
From the circulation desk, patrons will be able to walk up a few steps or take the elevator to go up to the old library or the children’s section.
“The children’s section is full of light and beautifully designed to hold all ages, from the littlest to teenagers. There will be separate sections for each, but interconnected,” said Grenkow.
A meeting room on the bottom floor of the addition will seat 80 people and have a smaller conference room where some library programs will be held. It will also be available for the public to use for classes or meetings.
The current circulation desk will offer space for patrons to sit at the counter and use their own, or library laptops to use library wifi and connect with the internet.
“Over the years, technology has become a part of our daily lives. We rely on the internet for things like school, work, medical appointments and more,” said Governor Phil Scott. “These grants will help Vermonters get connected at libraries across the state.”
This funding for completion of the library comes as the result of many years of work by former Chair of the Trustees Jodi Lew-Smith who served in that role during the COVID-19 pandemic as prices for construction materials were rising rapidly and the project required several redesigns to meet budget constraints, said Kalmar.
Before term limits required her to support the library in other ways, Lew-Smith’s tenure included discovery of an unexpected underground stream during excavation for the addition’s foundation, requiring substantial redesign of the foundation and drainage. She now heads the Friends of the Library organization.
Grenkow says, “bell hooks wrote that ‘love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust.’ The library is open for everyone, and the expanded Jeudevine will be able to offer more as a gathering place and source of information and recreation than it ever has. The library belongs to all of us and the door is open to everyone. We can’t wait to share the new space with the community.”
The library is open now while work on exterior landscaping to construct a patio area is being done by Gene Gravel. Temporary fencing will be in place around the construction area through much of October. Library patrons may enter from West Church Street along the front of the building to access the main entrance.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
