COLUMN: OCPL: Fall is a time for new projects at OCPL

The Friends of the Owen County Public Library will be holding their monthly Book Sale on Saturday, Nov. 9 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. This month's sale will be featuring holiday items.

The library now has a dedicated, supervised teen space (formerly the "tech room"), which has been welcoming students after school, during fall break and is also sometimes useful to home schooled students during the school day as well. There are planned activities every afternoon except Thursday from around 4 to 6 p.m. Some are using it as a place to get homework done, others just to "hang out," or for the fun, the friendship and the competition of games being played. Plans are being made to continue to add to the possibilities for entertainment, literacy and learning.

Another project that we plan to roll out sometime in the month of November is a "Library of Things." Many libraries do this, and it is something we have discussed for some time. We are finally making it happen.

The idea of a Library of Things is that there are a lot of items that would be useful to own, but because the cost may be prohibitive, or because of lack of space to store them at home, or because you may only use them a few times, you just wouldn't make that purchase. But if we have it at the library, you can check it out with your library card (just as you would a book or DVD) and return it when you're finished.

Some of the items that will be available are a foldable stroller/wagon for two children (great for visiting parks, zoos, festivals, etc.), a metal detector, a post hole digger, a large push broom, a wireless p.a. system, a large Bluetooth speaker, a light therapy lamp, a rubber stamp set, a corn hole game, a Tonie Box music and story toy (look it up, they are so fun for any child who loves to listen to stories and music, and/or who love children's animated movies. It's so easy for them to operate themselves, and they'll love the little characters that come with it), a pickle ball set, a giant Jenga set and some cloth scenery and a frame to be used as photography backdrops.

The Owen County Community Foundation, in support of the Library of Things, gave us a gift that will allow us to add items, replace missing or damaged parts and just generally keep the program going.

Our English Language class has expanded to be able to accommodate students at various stages of learning: The Beginning classes meet on Tuesday and Friday at 3:30 p.m. The Advanced class meets Monday and Thursday at 3:30 p.m. The intermediate groups meet on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. Anyone who is learning English as a second language or who feels that they could use some extra help to improve is welcome to attend. Classes are held in the Community Room of the library.

One longtime library project is finally being called "completed." On Saturday, Nov. 2 at 1 p.m., a celebration will be held to dedicate the library pavilion. While you may not see this announcement until it is too late to attend, we wanted to let the public know that the dedication has taken place, and the pavilion has been named the Tom and Kaye Erney Pavilion in honor of the couple who really made its existence possible when we had nearly given up the idea.

As early as late summer of 2019, the idea of building a pavilion had been suggested and considered. We applied for a grant in May of 2020. But of course, we all know that everything was stalled in 2020. During the pandemic, we were convinced more than ever that having an outdoor space could be a very useful thing, and so we waited through several levels of the grant process, which ran into 2021. By the summer of 2021 we were informed that we were not going to be awarded the grant. There were many applicants, and they could not award all of us. At that point we felt that the pavilion was just not meant to be.

As a requirement of the grant application, we had asked for pledges of donations to match the amount required by the grant. Mr. Erney, in his work role, was one of several on the list who was approached for a pledge.

When he heard that we had not received the grant, he and his wife Kaye discussed the possibility of personally making donations to the project as a way of leaving a legacy to benefit the community. They pledged 75 percent of the amount needed to build the building if we could raise the remainder. The Owen County Community Foundation made up the difference. Others in the community made donations that were used for specific improvements after the building was in place.

This was a long-time idea that finally came to fruition after many difficulties including a pandemic, drainage problems, hailstorms and difficulty finding construction workers (it seemed they were all busy replacing roofs and repairing hail damage all over town!). At one point we asked Scott Winders to be our project manager to see to it that all the finishing work was done. When he could not hire people, he did much of the work himself with the help of Josh Hogan.

We wanted to honor everyone who participated in so many different ways to make the pavilion possible, as well as celebrating some of the ways the pavilion is being used. Some of our music students from the Sounds program at the library will be providing entertainment for us at the celebration.