Renovation 2011

Thanks for a Successful Renovation!
Our renovation project is just about finished, with a few outdoor signs and some odds and ends remaining. The Open House on July 30th was spectacular. We had hundreds of visitors touring the new library that day. There are a lot of individuals and groups that I, on behalf of the Board of Trustees, want to thank for helping us make this project so successful.

We had significant financial assistance from many in the community. The Friends of the Lake Bluff Library raised over $18,000 to help fund several features, including the checkout desk, the new laptop counter on the 2nd floor, and new book displays. Larry Lee donated $10,000 to the library in 2010, which we used for creating the new entry way. The Knights of Columbus donated $800 to help us with the cost of some of the new chairs. To all who contributed financially, thank you for helping us include elements that we could not have otherwise incorporated.

Many groups within Lake Bluff offered support, encouragement, and elbow grease for the project. The Vliet Museum of Lake Bluff History was a willing partner in our quest to combine the building’s entry. We had terrific support from many of the dedicated staff at the Village Hall. The Kiwanis helped us move our operations downstairs into our temporary home, and a great group of teens helped bring it back into the remodeled space. Computer View, our IT contractor, provided temporary network hardware and many hours of time to reroute computer cables and phone lines. We are indebted to all of these folks who helped us with the practical details of the renovation.

It goes without saying that our Architect, Tiffany Nash, and the Construction Manager, Justin Pathmann, were instrumental in this project. Their vision, professionalism, and commitment were extraordinary. They worked together to bring us wonderful improvements while always striving to keep our project on-budget. The end result is, as you can see, outstanding.

It was also my privilege to watch the library staff work so well together in the crowded temporary space downstairs. It was a difficult challenge to provide our full range of services from the small meeting room downstairs, but they managed it impressively.

So many of our community’s residents –our raison d'être – continued to come to the library during the construction, and I want to thank all of you for patiently enduring the confusion, clutter, and inconvenience that comes with a project like this one. I hope you enjoy the new space and new features.

Finally, I want to thank the Board of Trustees for their vision to save funds for this project over the course of several years, and for enthusiastically supporting the work along the way.

Matt Womack

Library Director