The new Appleton Street entrance will be constructed from insulated concrete forms. These may look like Lego bricks, but they will give us an R-value of 22. The exterior of these walls will be covered with bricks to match the rest of the building. It's so exciting to see the walls grow taller!

The foundation under the grand granite steps on the Elm Street side of the building has slowly eroded over the past century. A great amount (and quality!) of work has been done to repair the foundation and stone work. Today, they started re-installing our granite steps!

We are grateful for the warm weather!

This unseasonably warm weather has been wonderful for building a library! It has allowed for great progress to be made on our project.

The photo on the left shows the tubing for the new radiant heating that will be in the Appleton Street entrance. (We'll be glad for cozy feet and a warm library next winter!) This morning was a perfect day for pouring concrete. You can see that work started early this morning with the sun rising slowly over Main Street.

This is NOT a submarine!

As part of the Library's new energy efficient heating system, a propane boiler will be installed to supplement the Daikon heat units on the coldest of cold days. This week, they installed the new 1,000 gallon underground propane tank.

In all kinds of weather....

We at the Library are impressed by the intrepid nature of the Blane Casey crew! Today's blinding rain didn't hold them back, as they pluckily poured concrete in the frame of the new elevator shaft.






On the other side of the building, Len Poulin's crew also deserve kudos for working in extreme weather. They have been working to restore the Library's front lawn (which is grass-less until spring!) after the installation of new drainage and the underground propane tank. The flurry of activity, along with the very interesting machinery (big and small), has been so exciting!

Some of our friends recently took a break from our Thursday playgroup (co-sponsored by KVCAP) to monitor the excavation on the Library's front lawn.

The Children's Room (after some major demolition)

The next time you drive south down Main Street, check out the exciting progress on the Library's new entrance on Appleton Street. If all goes well, in less than a year, library patrons and visitors will be accessing their favorite library services via this new beautiful ADA accessible entrance!
(We can't wait.)

While subcontractors are busy inside the Library working on the ground floor, there is a flurry of activity on the site of the future Appleton Street entrance. We are all grateful for the wonderful mild weather, which will be perfect for drying concrete! Today, work commenced on the pouring of the slab foundation for the new entrance. It's so exciting to see this happening!

Modern Art?

Dave and Scott from ATA Piping have been busy for the past week removing all of the piping from the Library's former steam heating system. The resulting pile of piping and metal in many ways looks more like an art installation than future recycling. Many of the pipes are original to the 1905 Carnegie building!

The Storytime Must Go On!

We have always loved storytimes here at the WtvlPL. For us, storytimes are the perfect way of introducing kids and families to the world of literature while at the same building literacy skills and, of course, having fun! During this next year, while our beloved Library gets a much needed facelift and important additions like an elevator (!), we will continue to offer community members programs like our Pigs and Noodles storytime and Rhymetime. As this photograph shows (it was taken just today in the Children's Room temporary location in the Bartlett Room), people attending our programs will find familiar faces and tons of fun. We hope to see you at a Waterville Library program soon!

Colby Men's Lacrosse Team Honored as Waterville Heroes

Retired Children's Librarian, Marie Benner, is shown here honoring a member of Colby's Men's Lacrosse team. On Tuesday, the team completed their 150 mile bikeathon benefiting the Library. Members of the team simultaneously moved the Children's Room from the ground floor to its temporary location in the Bartlett Room.

Children's Room in Motion

(Alexandra King is keeping her spirits up despite moving about a bazillion books in the past month!)

Moving the Children's Room into its temporary location in the Bartlett Room has been a HUGE endeavor and certainly a labor of love. Today, we boxed up our dear Beatrix Potter figurine collections. Work continues to move part of the fiction collection into its staff-access only storage. Supplies, puppets, and other bits of the Children's Room's operations are being stored in the homes of staff members to make sure that they stay safe in this tumultuous time.

Don't forget that the Children's Room will continue to offer all of your favorite programs in its new location! The storytimes must go on!


(Children's Librarian Kathleen Kenny has been busy packing up all of the Children's Room's treasures!)

Work on elevator shaft already underway!

They began drilling the elevator shaft today!

Colby Men's Lacrosse Team Moves Children's Room

The Library is so grateful for the amazing efforts and help of Colby's Men's Lacrosse. These guys are GREAT!

Our Children's Room is now upstairs in the Bartlett Room, thanks to their work.