Richmond library moves into rented space
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BY KEITH EDWARDS
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 11/19/2009

RICHMOND -- The Umberhine Public Library is open in a mold-free and warm but temporary location.

The old library at 86 Main St. closed about a month ago.

Library officials decided, as temperatures dropped, they could no longer operate in the old building, which does not have a working furnace or functional chimney and has mold growing on ceiling and walls.

The officials didn't want to spend money to repair the old building because fundraising efforts are under way to build a new library at the same site.

So the library is renting 164 Main St., the former Curves location, until funds can be raised to build new.

"The new space is beautiful, it has light streaming through the windows. It's warm, and it's clean, and not moldy," said Joyce McKenney, a library trustee. "We closed (the old library) the week of Halloween. Our librarian was working in there with no heat because we had no furnace. We tried to stay open but it just got too cold. And the mold was so bad it was hard to breathe in there, and people had burning, itchy eyes."

McKenney said that, as nice as the new space is, it's not big enough to be a permanent home.

"Here is very nice," McKenney said while at the new library space Thursday, the first day it was open. "But it's small. We're kind of squished in."

An open house at the library's temporary quarters is planned Saturday, from 1 to 3 p.m. McKenney said the old library will also be open to the public during the open house Saturday, so people can see for themselves its condition.

McKenney said the library got a good deal on its new space from the building's owner, Gary Nash, paying $700 a month in rent, heat included.

She said the rent will not come out of the fund to build a new library, but from the library's operating budget.

Numerous volunteers helped move books, shelving and other materials out of the library, as did inmates from the Central Maine Pre-Release Center in Hallowell.

Judy Batty, president of the library trustees, said $680,000 has been raised to build a new, 5,800 square-foot library. The goal is about $1.3 million. A grant-writer is seeking funds.

McKenney figures they'll probably be in the current building for about two years, as it will take time to raise enough money to build the new facility.

Officials said many people visited the library when it was closed, checking to see if had reopened.

When it did, and librarian Donna McCluskey got a computer hooked up for the first time Thursday, she found a reminder of the library's popularity. She had 485 new e-mails.

Keith Edwards -- 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

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