Judging by the cars parked along both sides of State Road and the full parking lot of Alley’s, it might have been a summer Saturday in West Tisbury. Instead the crowd of more than 150 people were headed to the opening of the new West Tisbury library.
After a fundraising campaign and four years of planning, the West Tisbury Free Public Library is ready to open. Opening day is Saturday, March 22. The ribbon-cutting ceremony begins at 10 a.m.
The workshops are held Tuesdays from 5:30 to 7 p.m. through March 25. The poetry workshop is planned for intermediate and advanced writers and is taught by poet Donald Nitchie. The class focuses on critique.
The West Tisbury library announces that Amy Hoff has been promoted to assistant librarian. She will also be director of the young adult and programming departments as well.
Early afternoon on a hot and humid Monday. Between moments of calm, there is an ongoing flow of summer-garbed people coming and going, checking on books they’ve ordered, renewing books, searching for something new to read and DVDs to watch. But no one comes in to the West Tisbury Free Public Library without his or her entrance being noted and acknowledged. Familiarity is instantaneous, and all visitors — young and old — are received with hushed welcome.
It’s almost your last chance donate to the annual book sale sponsored by the Friends of the West Tisbury Library. They are still collecting donations for sale in the gym of the West Tisbury School on Old County Road. What they are looking for: used books in good condition. What they are not looking for: encyclopedias, magazines, outdated or obsolete books or those old moldy and mildewy books that have been lying around your basement for years.
It takes a village to raise a library, and many of them showed up to celebrate the halfway point of construction at the West Tisbury Library last week. Foundation work is complete on the $6 million project and framing on the building has begun. The “topping off ceremony” marked the placement of the highest beam. Building committee members, library foundation members, selectmen and trustees participated in the ceremony.
With construction about halfway complete on the new West Tisbury Library project, town leaders raised concerns this week about a rapidly dwindling contingency fund for the project.
The $6 million project has already used up half of a $200,000 reserve in the budget. Construction began in December and there is a little less than $100,000 left.
