We love to see some positive things happening around us! Good luck Dianne and her staff on the upcoming A/C install!
From the BCCT:
Grant to provide central air for the library
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
The Morrisville Free Library will close for at least four weeks this spring as contractors install a central air-conditioning system in the former church building that houses the community library, officials said.
Borough officials said the more than 100-year-old library is scheduled to close April 24 and reopen May 24, if everything goes according to plan. Diane Hughes, the library's director, said she hopes the work will be over by June, when the library begins its children's summer reading club.
The work is being paid for by a grant of more than $190,000 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant program - an amount nearly equaling the library's yearly operating budget. It costs Morrisville $197,000 to run the stained-glass windowed library, which inhabits an old Episcopal church built in 1911 at North Pennsylvania and East Palmer avenues.
More than 100 people use the facility daily, according to officials, who said the library has a collection of more than
25,000 items and a patron base of about 7,000 members.
People will have to use other community libraries or branches within the Bucks County Library Network while the borough library is closed. Morrisville library patrons will be able to return books to the library's drop box even while the building is shut down.
The borough opened nine bids for the air-conditioning project Wednesday. They ranged from $147,000 to more than $192,000.
Council President Nancy Sherlock said the council could award a contract for the work as early as the borough council's 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 meeting at borough hall, 35 Union St.
For years, the library has used two window air conditioners to cool the building. Patrons said the new addition will be warmly received.
"This will really make it comfortable here," Hughes said. "The patrons will really feel the benefit of this."
In the last two weeks of April, the library will begin moving things like plants, chairs and tables to make way for the construction. The books and shelves will remain in the library, Hughes said, but they will be covered so nothing gets damaged.
Volunteers to help the library move equipment and furniture can call 215-295-4850.
