District Library raises close to $200,000 to help with amenities

Belleville Area District Library Board chairman Sharon Peters announced at its Nov. 13 meeting that the Fund Development/Marketing Committee has raised close to $200,000 so far in its efforts to gather additional funds to provide amenities for the new library building, now under construction.
She said that committee is connecting with the Art Committee for the new library.
Peters said that want to do something before the cornerstone is laid. She said they will put the names of every donor, big and small, inside the cornerstone.
The Legacy @ Your Library gathering on Nov. 15 was set up to explain what is happening with the library and how individuals and groups can leave their legacies with their donations.
Peters said among the donations so far are $50,000 from the Belleville Rotary Club, $85,000 from an anonymous donor for vegetative roofs, $25,000 from the Friends of the Library for naming rights of the children’s garden, and $10,000 from Dee Crowe for naming rights for the fireplace.
In other business at the Nov. 13 meeting, the board:
• Welcomed in the audience two newly elected board members, who will take their seats in January: Linda Priest, a retired teacher who is active in the Friends of the Library and has lived in Belleville for 18 years; and Barbara Gates, a retired Naval officer and nurse who worked for the State Department in Washington and around the world, who has lived in Van Buren Township for two years as of this coming February. Two incumbent board members were also reelected: Mary Jane Dawson and Sharon Peters. Board members said they would miss board member Tanya Stoudemire, who was not reelected;
• Heard a report from building committee chairwoman Joy Cichewicz who said they decided to make the new upstairs toilet unisex after hearing input from staff. Also board member John Juriga will look into getting Contract Welding in Belleville to do the benches and bike racks for the building. She also reported they will be meeting with Sumpter Township on Nov. 20 to work on details for the branch library to be put in place there;
• Heard a report from architect Dan Whisler on progress on building the new library. He said a number of contracts were accepted and awarded on Oct. 16. The original delivery date for the first of the steel beams has been delayed until mid December. Scaffold has arrived on the scene and should be up soon. He said the block elevator shaft and stair shaft have to be in place before the beams go up. He also reported AT&T is out doing a lot of its work and is getting the overhead wires out of the way of the construction team;
• Heard Library Director Mary Jo Suchy report that they have gone out for bids for a Radio Frequency Identification program so the new library can offer self-checkout. It also will act as an anti-theft system and will greatly improve the workflow for the circulation staff. Bids are due Nov. 21. She said all the books and audio-visual materials in the entire collection must first be tagged. The new library will contain 86,000 books and 10,000 A-V items. She said the tagging is expected to begin in March. She also said although not in the budget, they have asked for pricing from vendors on an automated materials handling system that will pre-sort items being returned to the library. She said the architect has designed the staff area of the library for the possibility of installing such a system; and
• Heard Peters say she attended the Michigan Library Association meeting when Belleville author Beverly Jenkins was honored. Peters, who said she has known Jenkins since college, said Jenkins is “A treasure of the Belleville area.”