On Saturday September 19, Homer Public Library held an open house to celebrate twenty years since the opening of their building on Hazel Avenue. The day included reflections on the building from Nancy Lord, chair of the capital campaign committee and remarks from City of Homer mayor Rachel Lord. Library Director Dave Berry presented a time capsule that will be mounted on the wall in the library to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the building. The time capsule is scheduled to be opened in 2046 and will include a guest book signed by attendees at the Saturday event.
Other activities included a behind the scenes library tour, children’s storytime and refreshments and games. Various display tables were set up including a Homer library history display, library advisory board, teen advisory board, friends of the Homer library, conversations with a council member, BOB the bookmobile and a display of things such as sleds, a disc golf set and a birding backpack that can be checked out from the library.
Nancy Lord opened her talk with these comments:
“I just want I want to welcome you all, and just say it's just great to see so many people every day enjoying the library and valuing it the way that we the community does.”
Lord continued her presentation by explaining what the community advisory board did to help raise and secure funds to get the “new” library started. She referred to a three year campaign in 2001, 2002 and 2003 with support from the city mayor, manager, staff as well as representative Paul Seaton in the state government and Ted Stevens to assist with some federal support.
“We had kids coming in, bringing in pennies, and I also just wanted to mention at least one school class did made cardboard models of their dream libraries, and I was hoping that maybe one of those kids who was here then? Who's a grown-up now? Would be here, but the models were wonderful, and one one of one of them had a swimming pool on the top floor. So just you know, community community values and what the community wanted…once we had community involvement to that level or at a significant level, that got the attention of other donors, the Rasmuson Foundation, the Homer Foundation, Rasmussen Foundation, other foundations, the government, and that enabled us to raise the money for it,” Lord said.
Mayor Rachel Lord opened her proclamation from the city with these words: “I was so delighted by issuing the proclamation of recognition at our last city council meeting. It is for this event. It is catalyzed by this event, but it is a proclamation recognizing the people of the Southern Kenai Peninsula, not this library, not this building, not this city, but all of us together collectively as a community, because that's how this building was built.”
She ended expressing how much emphasis the community places on their library: “I love this library so much, and also it is a collective responsibility that we have to continue to understand how we want to fund the the books, the staff, the people, the space, the heat, and what that looks like, and what levels we want to have those services at. This community has prioritized library funding in a massive way. It is less than police and fire. It is less than public works. But it is. We prioritize the funding of this space, and I value that. And I think it has huge returns for the families, the people who work in this community, the people who visit this community, and I am ever grateful for that. And I also never ever will take it for granted.”
More information on the library including hours and check out materials is available at https://www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/library.
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
