Donna Gilkey-Lavin reelected president of Friends of Library

Donna Gilkey-Lavin was reelected president of the Friends of the Belleville Area District Library at Saturday’s annual meeting.
Katerina Tyner was elected vice president, Manny Lavin was elected treasurer and Rika Regentin was elected secretary.
The meeting was held after the beam-signing ceremony for the new library being constructed next door to the present library in downtown Belleville.
Because of the large crowd at the beam signing, there was some concern that the 35 box lunches ordered from the Lunch Box to feed those attending the Friends meeting might not be enough, but there were two left over.
Awards were given to: Linda Priest for Member of the Year, Joe Lebron for Volunteer of the year, and Dee Crowe for Lifetime Achievement.
District Library Board Chairwoman Sharon Peters said she was delighted with the blue sky for the beam signing and for the fact that representatives came from Belleville, Van Buren, and Sumpter to participate.
“This town likes to party,” said Gilkey-Lavin, referring to the large number of people who waited in line to sign a beam and then watched as it was pulled into the air, located in a part of the structure, and then fastened into place.
Gilkey-Lavin said the library’s theme for 2018 was “Bear with Us” because of all the disruption as the library construction started. This year’s theme is “Digging Our New Library.”
She said Amazon and DTE are making pledges to the library and employees will have their donations matched. She said district library board member John Juriga’s son, who grew up here and now works for Google and lives in Brooklyn, NY, will have his $10,000 donation matched by Google for a $20,000 total.
Gilkey-Lavin said they are also pursuing ways to let people donate with just a tap on their computers via the internet.
Outgoing Friends treasurer Rick Cichewicz presented a check for $20,000 from the Friends to the library, noting the remaining $5,000 of the $25,000 pledge will come before the end of this year.
Library Director Mary Jo Suchy said the library have moved the benches on the porch to be located so people can sit and watch construction progress. She listed donations from various members.
Peters said, “The reason we’ve been able to do so much is because we have such a capable library director.” She spoke of Suchy’s financial talents as well as her personality that is able “to keep everything on an even keel.”
Peters said by the end of 2019, the new building will be done and they will figure out ways to say goodbye to the present building before they tear it down.
After the building is torn down, the parking lot will be constructed, so the actual grand opening of the new building will be in 2020.
Peters said the workmen put the beam that was signed that morning over the big meeting community room. The beam supports the room with the teen computers.
Juriga said former library director Deb Green and present director Suchy have been working to get a new library for 23 years.
Belleville City Councilman Tom Fielder complained, tongue in cheek, about all the noise from the construction when he is trying to read a newspaper at the library.
Suchy said while other women show people pictures of their children on their cell phones, she shows pictures of the library construction.
‘This building truly is my child and it’s in its infancy and is making all kinds of strange noises,” Suchy said.
Dean Kokkales and Matt Ratzow, both of O’Neal Construction, gave an update on the library work.
Kokkales, who is site superintendent and at the site every day to oversee the contractors, said he loves doing projects for the whole community.
Out of five sequences of beam settings, there are two more to do, one over the beam that was signed and the main entrance.
He said next will come exterior metal studs around the perimeter and sheeting on the outside to get ready for brickwork. Then they will get a roof on it, but certain conditions, temperature-wise are needed for that and will probably come in late March. Then they will pour the second floor and then the first floor and start closing in the floors and do the exterior finishing.
“Should be done in November,” he said.
Ratzow said they are working on the process to get out of the present building the first of December.
Kokkales said iron workers are pretty resilient and work in cold weather. He said a load of iron is coming next Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ratzow said some projects need good temperatures, like the roof and the brick.
“We can keep going otherwise, as long as the workers are safe,” Ratzow said.
When asked about the size, they said the
building is two stories and the south stair tower goes all the way to the roof. They said it was 30 feet to the roof.
Ratzow said the round drum or turret feature will begin in one and a half weeks.
After the building skeleton is established, the multiple trades doing the roof, metal studs, and inside work can begin.