Roe Jan Library is Green

The Mid-Hudson Library newsletter reports: "The brand new Roeliff-Jansen Community Library serving Hillsdale, Copake and Acram in Columbia County opened for business on Saturday, November 6th!  The new 7,500 square foot, $2.8 million library is three times the size of the original library and is on track to be the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified library in MHLS. The building boasts an array of sustainable, or "green," features including a daylight harvesting system, radiant heat, a porous pavement parking lot to control stormwater runoff, and plans for solar electric and geothermal HVAC. The use of green technologies will significantly reduce energy consumption, and the annual savings in heating and cooling expenses will help keep operating costs at a minimum. This amazing building is 10 years in the making, a labor of love for many, many people. Our hats go off to the Roe-Jan Board of Trustees, Library Director Carol Briggs, the staff and Friends of the library."


Like the Pleasant Valley Free Library, the Roe-Jan Library is a free-association library dating from the early years of the 20th century.  Also like the Pleasant Valley Library, the new building has been in the works for 10 years, but unlike our local Library, the Roe Jan managed to raise 80% of the $2.8 million needed for construction.  While they still have $300,000 left to raise, they have a beautiful new building and that should help them in the effort.


What makes the Roeliff-Jansen Community Library Green? The New Library Will Incorporate:

•   A geothermal heating and cooling system.
•   Solar energy, through efficient windows and photovoltaic cells.
•   Use of non-toxic, environmentally friendly building materials.
•   Water-filtration and building insulation systems that take advantage of our sloping site.

The Building Committee of the Pleasant Valley Library has been meeting with architects about a new plan for our Library.  We have learned that it may be difficult on our small site to use geothermal heating and cooling (although perhaps not impossible), but certainly the other "green" options are available.  What is more, New York State can help fund environmentally favorable construction. So there is much that we can learn from the Roe Jan experience, both in fundraising and construction. 

Help Out Another Local Library

WAMC's Alan Chartock will be Guest Auctioneer at the

June 19^th Fundraising Gala for the New Roeliff Jansen Community Library

"It's going to be a great evening!" So predicts Ned Schneier, president of the Board of Trustees, commenting on the gala fundraiser to be held at the new Roeliff Jansen Community Library on Saturday, June 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.

Purpose of the event-titled "The Unadorned Library" because it is being held before books and shelves are in place-is to raise funds to help complete the new facility, which is located on Rt. 22 in Copake. The 7,500 square-foot building, complete with energy saving solar panels, replaces the current library building in Hillsdale, built in 1925, which will be sold to Hillsdale for use as the Town Hall.

Schneier says the fundraiser is the first of several events that will be held at the facility both before and after it opens to the public this summer. "Just as the old one did, the new library will enrich the lives of everyone who lives in our community for years to come," he says, "and attending these events is a way for everyone to show their support."

The new building will be so much more than a place to house books, says Schneier. "It will also be a vibrant community center for concerts, readings and plays, and a meeting place for local organizations."

Pat Pollok, chair of the fundraiser, says the highlight of the evening will be a live auction hosted by Alan Chartock, President of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. "We have some wonderful auction items," says Pollok, "including weekend stays at several inns, tickets to concerts and plays, dinners at area restaurants, choice antiques."

Crime buffs attending the gala will no doubt be interested in what may well be the most unusual objects up for auction: a signed, dated and framed specimen from accounting journals kept by Murder Inc.'s Chief Financial Officer, Meyer Lansky; and the first-ever tax return filed by Vito Genovese, one of Murder Inc.'s enforcers and the founding father of the Genovese crime family. With this auction package comes a bonus: DVD's of "The Godfather," parts 1, 2 and 3.

In addition, Pollok says, guests will be invited to bid "on the opportunities to name specific areas of the library, either for themselves or in memory of a loved one."

As they tap their toes to the sounds of the George Mandel Jazz Quartet, guests will quench their thirst with beverages provided by B&G Wine and Gourmet, and sample a wide variety of hot and cold hors d'oeuvres from local caterers and restaurants, including At the Kitchen Table Cooking School, Baba Louie's, The Berry Farm, Catering to Your Taste, Earth Foods, The Farmer's Wife, John Andrews, Marketplace Kitchen, Mt. Washington House, The Pond, and Verdigris, among others.

Among the auction items donated to date are tickets for a performance by legendary Broadway actress Elaine Stritch at the Mahaiwe Theater, a cooking class with Julie Gale at her newly opened At the Kitchen Table Cooking School, a weekend stay at The Bell House B&B, a mid-1800s German porcelain and brass lamp and four tickets to any performance at The Hudson Opera House.

Also, a dramatic varnished wood birdcage with domed turrets, and gift certificates from many businesses in Hillsdale, Hudson and Great Barrington, including the Berkshire Co-op Market, Café Adam, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, Hawthorne Valley Farm Store, Hillsdale House, Lili and Loo, Mexican Radio and Passiflora.

          Tickets to "The Unadorned Library" gala are $100 per person, or $175 for two, and are tax-deductible. Checks should be made out to RJCL Capital Campaign and mailed to P.O. Box 15, Copake, NY 12516. For more information, call 518-329-0182 or e-mail rjclcampaign@taconic.net