Our New Second Floor

On July 24, 2008, members of the Board of Trustees, Friends of the Pleasant Valley Free Library, and Trustee spouses gathered to assemble the bookcases that were the finishing touch (so far) on a complete renovation of the second floor of the Manse.  If you have not climbed the stairs to see it, you should do so.

This work was largely funded by a $25,000 grant from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation through the good offices of our neighbor in Salt Point, Charles Pierce, recently retired director of the Morgan Library in New York City. Perhaps Mr. Pierce heard gossip that the Pleasant Valley Free Library was approaching foundations for help in raising funds for our planned building expansion.  We were delighted and excited when he contacted Maryelen Brown, then president of the Board, to discuss this grant.  It was Mr. Pierce who chose the Children's Room renovation for the target of the grant.

Our Library Director, Daniela Pulice, and members of the Board studied the Children's Room.  It needed new carpeting, windows, and bookcases, but it also was separated into two rooms unnecessarily by a wall.  Space was also lost to an unused closet and kitchen sink. Fortunately we had already arranged to replace most of the windows in the Manse (this will be the subject of a later post). Bids were taken, engineers were consulted, drawings were made showing exactly what needed to be done.

One Saturday late in May, members of the Board, Friends, a Trustee spouse, and Library Staff efficiently moved the entire children's collection and all the bookcases into the meeting room, also on the second floor of the Manse. The bookcases were cleverly arranged so that children and Julie Poplees, our Children's Librarian, still had access to all the essential books. Then the carpenters went to work.  Not only did they carry out the plan, but also along the way they discovered structural defects in the beams that they repaired. Meanwhile a design for new carpeting was chosen and the new carpets ordered. Although the Fairchild grant did not cover improving the meeting room, the Board elected to buy matching carpet for that room as well. 

The carpet in the completed Children's  Room was installed on June 18. On June 21, another team of the usual suspects gathered to move all the books and old bookcases out of the meeting room along with any meeting room furniture so that carpeting could be installed in the meeting room.  Then, a few days later, the meeting room furniture had to be moved back and placed on the new carpet.  All this preceded the arrival of the new bookcases.  All in all, it was quite a task, but a visit upstairs should show you that it was well worth it.

You can learn more about the children's various Library Programs, which are based on the second floor, by visiting our Web site: www.pleasantvalleylibrary.org.

We were very lucky that the Sherman Fairchild Foundation paid for nearly all of the work and new materials. Beyond that amount, the trustees were forced to dip into the capital reserve to cover carpeting the meeting room and correcting structural problems.  The new windows also were only partially funded by New York State, with most of the money coming from capital reserve funds.  Because all of these improvements were coordinated with changes needed to renovate the Manse when expansion occurs, they properly should have been paid for out of our Building Fund--but the Building Fund is just getting started and could not sustain those amounts.