AUGUSTA — News that a library is closing its doors is usually met with at least a measure of regret and sadness, but the atmosphere inside Lithgow Public Library Saturday, which has closed the doors to its Winthrop Street location for at least the next year, was much more fiesta than funeral.
The library will spend the next 18 months at the Ballard Center across the Kennebec River while the Winthrop Street site undergoes an $11 million renovation and expansion. The library, which will offer all of its programs and services at the new temporary location, is expected to open by mid-May. Officials hope to return to the renovated Winthrop Street location in October 2016.
“Some people have wondered why we’re leaving this beautiful building,” said Assistant Library Director Sarah Schultz Nielsen. “We’re always reassuring people, ‘Yes, we are coming back.'”
Library Director Elizabeth Pohl said crews from Portland-based Earle W. Noyes and Sons are expected to arrive at the library on Wednesday to begin moving the libraries collection of 65,000 books, DVDs and audio books to the Ballard Center, which is the site of the old MaineGeneral Medical Center on Arsenal Street. Artwork, antiques and much of the library’s equipment will be placed in storage.
“We have confidence our movers will do a good job,” Pohl said. “They’ve moved other libraries before, including ones more complicated than this.”
Pohl said the new location, which is the site of the former hospital lab, is expected to have enough storage for all of the books. The library’s programs will continue as well. Its phone number also will be unchanged.
“It will be noticeably smaller, but our collection is not going to have to be in storage,” Pohl said.
The move has taken considerable planning by library staff, and only slightly less by regular users. Nielsen said people have been leaving with larger stacks of books than usual to help tide them over the few weeks until the temporary location is up and running. The library has relaxed return deadlines to accommodate the closure.
“I already have a little bit more,” said Karen Marriner, of Fayette. “I’m here to get more.”
Cassie Bouton, of Augusta, said she takes her children, 4-year-old Matty and 16-month-old Rosie, to the library every Saturday.
“Is the kid section still open?” Matty asked Nielsen anxiously.
“Yes,” she reassured him. “But it’s getting pretty bare.”
Bouton said she will continue to take her family across the river when the library re-opens. Reading and the library are big parts of her family’s life, she said.
“We love it,” she said. “It’s nice to have a quiet, safe place to hang out.”
Joy Walkenford, of Augusta, checked out a tall stack of magazines to carry her through the closing. She said she visits the library every day. She will have no problem going to the new temporary location.
“I love the library,” she said.
Walkenford said she lived in Waterville when the library there went through a renovation project. That experience has given her great hope for the future of Lithgow.
“I think it will be good for the community when it’s all over and done,” she said. “I think it will help more people.”
Marriner, whose husband works on the former Augusta Mental Health Institute grounds, said the move will actually make it easier for him to return books and audio tapes. She said her hometown has a nice library, but the hours of operation do not fit her schedule so she has come to the Lithgow regularly for the past three years.
“I get my bag of books and go home and read,” Marriner said. “It’s convenient and the people are wonderful.”
Marriner said she has no complaints about having to cross the river to use the library. She said parking at the Ballard Center is better anyway.
“When you have to read, it doesn’t matter where you get your stuff,” she said.
Even if the new location is more of a challenge, Marriner said the expansion and renovation of the Winthrop Street location will make it all worthwhile.
“It’s a perfectly wonderful place,” she said. “When it’s double the size, it will be even better.”
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
Twitter: @CraigCrosby4
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