To the editor:
As was reported in last week’s Star-Herald, Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library recently held an Open House to celebrate the completion of renovations to the library’s interior and entrance. Many of our patrons and visitors to the library know that this project was funded in vast majority by a generous donation from Mary Smith. Her gift to Presque Isle will be one the community can enjoy for generations to come.
This project would not have been the success it is without you, the community member. Your patience as we changed entrances, shared parking, relocated departments, and juggled the locations and availability of our collections was truly above and beyond. Thank you! Researchers and historians shared table space with young adults and teens; children shared space with adults and enjoyed their story times through the development of the new Teen Lounge and the hiring of a new youth librarian. Patrons thoughtfully donated books, funds, volunteer time, and words of encouragement and support. Those cheerful words in particular lifted greatly the spirits of staff who might have had several hours of jack hammering or dust, and they also greatly validated the beautiful work of the construction crew who, at times, probably felt like the Bad Guys.
As a result of your enduring faith and fortitude, Presque Isle has a public library which will serve as a source of comfort and pride for the community. Teens have a dedicated Lounge area; children have a new library area of their own with bright colors and new furniture; Reference has new shelving to house a generous donation of genealogy books just in time for the Acadian Congress; and the main adult library now provides the kind of inviting reading and visiting space that you, our citizens, have hoped and asked for.
We are proud of our new library, and we are extremely proud of the patrons and community members who walked through the Valley of Sheetrock and Scaffolding with us to see this project through to completion. Thank you for sharing Mary’s dream and ours of a better Presque Isle, and for making it happen.
Sonja Plummer Morgan, librarian
