KENT, Conn.—A happy throng of young and old jammed the open space in front of the Kent Memorial Library Saturday for a ceremonial groundbreaking of the expansion and renovation project currently underway.
The $7 million project will see renovations to the older section of the building, the core of which was constructed in 1921 as a memorial for soldiers lost in World War I, and expansion into a neighboring structure formerly used as a firehouse. The project will double the size of the facility and position it as a community center for 21st century needs.
The project “has been a very long time coming” according to library director Sarah Marshall. The library has been expanded twice since its original construction: in 1958 to create the area formerly used for fiction stacks and again in 1984 when the children’s room was added.
A serious effort at expansion was undertaken in the early 2000s under the leadership of Ken Cooper, then president of the Library Associates, but faltered just as it was about to get started when the nation’s economy collapsed in 2008.
Six years ago, the effort resumed. Janet Rivkin, executive vice president of the library’s board of director, spoke of that effort during the ceremony. She said that her late husband, Larry, turned 100 in the same year that the library celebrated its centennial. “He wanted to fulfill a need in this community, and he started a campaign to raise money [for this expansion.] He passed away just as we were starting.”
The community support for the project has, indeed, been impressive. A $2 million grant from the state provided the basis for the project but donors have contributed more than $5.8 million, according to Sam Callaway, head of the building committee. “You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to know that without that we wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
Callaway observed that libraries are now “the backbones of their communities.” “Libraries have changed in recent years,” he said. “Once they were just depositories for books—now they are full-fledged community centers and with that comes new needs.”
He lauded Marshall and the “incredible staff of the library, the volunteers, without whom this wouldn’t be possible, the 23 members of board of directors,” who he said are “committed and competent” and the many donors who made it possible.
In 1921, when construction of the original library began (its $9,000 cost also paid for by donors) Governor Everett J. Lake was present to lay the cornerstone. In the more than a century since, Connecticut has had 25 other governors and Saturday, the most recent occupant of the office, Governor Ned Lamont, made his way to Kent for this latest and most ambitious expansion.
“I’m here because of the amazing job Sarah Marshall does,” he said, “and I’m here because [U.S. Congresswoman] Jahanna Hayes says I have to be here, and because [state Representative] Maria Horn is such a persuasive advocate for libraries and because I love libraries.”
“Libraries are more important than ever,” he continued. “Algorithms just send you the things you want to hear, but libraries are different. They have books curated by a librarian that can give you different perspectives. Take books seriously—put down your phone and pick up a book.”
Horn and Hayes were among the other dignitaries present. “I can’t think of a better way to end Library Week,” said Hayes. “When I arrived, I thought, ‘There’s nobody here,’ but then people were coming from all the different neighborhoods and in five minutes this place filled up. People care about this place.”
Horn said the Kent Library is a “perfect example of how libraries have changed,” providing not only books but also access to Internet in a town where broadband is notoriously challenged. “This is a place where community can congregate,” she concluded.
Following the brief ceremony, Marshall invited the crowd to the library’s temporary site at 10-12 Landmark Lane for “cake and bubbly.”
