ELLY GRIMM

    • Leader & Times

Patrons at Liberal Memorial Library will soon see the finishing of some great renovation work.

As Liberal Memorial Library Director Royce Kitts tells it, discussion about the work has been going on for multiple years by this point.

“We're retiling from the parking lot all the way to the elevator and over and into the children’s area with tile, and it's actually something that we've been talking about doing for the past seven years, give or take,” Kitts said. It's something we've been talking about because the tiles were put down in about 1987 or 1988, and what's happened is a lot of them have chips in them, and the glaze on tile that helps makes it easier to clean had completely worn off, and there were a lot of dead spots in the tile. It was kind of falling apart in certain areas. One of the factors that had always kind of been a barrier for that project had been the cost, and then we had Scantlin’s reach out to us wanting to work together on a project. We’ve used Scantlin’s a lot for our flooring projects in the past, and this was a time where they came to us and essentially said, ‘Hey, we want to work on a big project for the library and give a bit of a discount on the materials.’ That proposal alleviated a lot of the cost just right away, and then we reached out to a couple of different local groups like the Liberal Memorial Library Foundation and the Cooper Clark Foundation. They came through with a significant contribution, and we’ll also be using a small portion from our capital improvement fund. The tile lasted for 40 years, so we're looking for this to last at least 40 years.”

Kitts then went into more detail about the work itself.

“Early on, when the crews were doing the construction, it was just a couple of hours at night, and we thought that would work. But after a week, it was pretty clear we wouldn’t be fully able to keep up with the dust and everything that was created,” Kitts said. “I had been coming in in the mornings and recleaning everything, but when you only have a few hours to work, you can only do so much. We ultimately decided, if they're going to work more hours, we couldn’t really have people around. With the material they use to adhere the tile to the floor, once they start scraping it and it gets up into the air, it's really not good for people to be around. And then when you're mixing this stuff, that you don't want people around it then, either. We unfortunately had to be closed for a week, which is not my favorite thing. It meant we also had to delay the book sale and cancel some of our regular programs. There are two things I really hate doing as a library director – closing the library, and canceling a program, especially for people who look forward to going to a certain program or another. The plan is for the work to keep going about another week, and they'll have that done, and then they're going to do carpeting in some other areas. We're super excited. We're already seeing the benefits of the work, and I would say we're probably looking at the project being about 60 percent done right now.”

And the project will be beneficial not just for current patrons, but also for the future.

“Something I always think about is the people in the future who will have to come along and replace something I did, and I want to make it easier for them,” Kitts said. “Essentially, what I want, is 40 years down the road, whoever's the director at the library will say, ‘Hey, this tile's old, needs to be replaced,’ and it'll be easier for them. Something I like about this new tile is it's very natural stone looking, and I think it's going to age very nicely. I've been here for 12 years now, and we've redone basically everything since I've been here. Everything has been repainted, the flooring's been redone. Now, there’s the wear and tear of those 12 years, and I’m looking around at the things I did when I first got here and thinking about what will need done in the future. This seems like just a blip in the radar for remodeling, but I always think you're kind of constantly remodeling and renovating a building of this size. We’re looking past this project and  into the future of what we might want to do at the library, whether that’s updates to the children’s area or the teen area, or maybe something else.”

And it is not just potential future remodeling that is being considered, Kitts said.

“I feel like there are a lot of new opportunities as the world changes and people's taste and how they consume media,” Kitts said. “For example, the audio books we once had are no longer at our library – patrons can still get them, they're at the Ransom Library, and we can still get those through interlibrary loan. It's interesting for our library how DVDs are still really popular – one would think once they took out all the Redbox spots and all the Blockbuster stores closed and Netflix no longer sending out DVDs they wouldn't be as popular, but they really are. Something else that's happening a lot with digital media is things coming in onto and off of digital platforms and people not having access. Since we're undergoing all this remodeling, we're having those discussions of potentially looking at re-adding some series back to the collection because people are telling us ‘I really like the show, but I can't see it anymore without paying 20 bucks a month for the streamer it’s on.”

Kitts said he is happy the work is finally getting done, but admitted there is also some bittersweetness underneath.

“The construction’s not as noisy as when the teens here are after school, so that’s nice, and it’s great to see everything finally happening,” Kitts said with a chuckle. “But it's a little bittersweet because it was something Ken Thompson, who passed away a few years ago, really wanted to see happen because he told me multiple times ‘We’ve got to do something about this,’ and he was always trying to push me to make some progress on that, so I think he'd be effusive and excited in his own way about the work we've done. I think about Ken a lot because his footprint is so heavy here at the library and he did so much. I remember one of the projects we talked about a lot when he was still the library board president was installing the LED lights – when we’d talked about it when I first got here, it was a $100,000 project. Then, thanks to TNT Electric, over the past two years we've done everything with LED lights, and it's only cost about  $18,000 total, give or take. We’re always making sure the library, which is tax-supported, provides the best benefit possible to those who live in our community and in the surrounding communities as well.”

Kitts said he is excited for the work to be completed.

“There's a lot to be said for walking into a space and it looking nice. That curb appeal matters to people, and we intentionally work to look around and make sure if one area or another looks a little shabby, let's clean it up,” Kitts said. “A lot of people get a great feeling when they walk into a space that's taken care of. And then we also want patrons to know the library their tax dollars are paying for is being taken care of and there are people looking after it. As our  signs currently say, just pardon the mess. We’re super thankful this happened before the holiday season really got kicked off, and I would say by the time Christmas comes around, the library will be decorated REALLY nicely. I just encourage everyone to stop in if they can and see what we’re up to, they won’t be disappointed.”