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The new Peninsula Community Library (PCL) is now open for business. The grand opening took place this morning at 10 a.m., and Old Mission Peninsula residents crowded into the community room to celebrate the library and have a look around the brand new farmhouse-style building designed by Cornwell Architects and built by Grand Traverse Construction.
When the closing of Old Mission Peninsula School threatened the future of the library several years ago (were you at the meeting where Josh Wunsch stood up and offered to buy the school back from TCAPS for a dollar?), library director Vicki Shurly was not deterred. In January 2016, she told the OMP community, “You will always have a library on the Old Mission Peninsula,” and sure enough, she was right.
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In September 2016, the PCL Board voted to begin planning the construction of a new library on the corner of Center Road and Island View Road – land purchased by a forward-thinking library board way back in the 1990s. Because as Vicki reminds us, there’s no way the library could have afforded to buy that same 5.25 acres on the Old Mission Peninsula today.
In February 2017, a team-building meeting took place, and committees were formed to spearhead the construction, design, fundraising, communications and more. In May 2017, an anchor donation of $750,000 was pledged by Bill and Nancy Davy, and the library was well on its way to reaching their $2.5 million goal to build the library.
Pig roasts, fundraising events, a historic groundbreaking, midnight cement-pouring and many, many decisions later, that library is now a reality. Read the full timeline of events here.
In fact, as the ribbon on the library’s new front door notes, it’s “a gift to the community” BY the community. The number of people who came together to make it happen is astounding – and you can see them on the donor wall as you walk in the front door.
The grand opening festivities this morning included introductions of the board, building and design crew, and much more, including a special interlude by Tim Carroll and his “talking” African drum (which said, “Thanks for the donations, keep ’em coming”).
Peninsula Community Library will now be open for regular hours, so stop by and check out the beautiful new building, kids area, teen room, coffee bar, Johnson-Carroll History Room, Mary Johnson Fireplace, donor wall, Neahtawanta room, community room and more. Library hours are:
- Monday and Thursday: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.
- Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday: 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
- Saturday: 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Check out a few photos from the grand opening, and we’ll see you at the library!
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SUPPORT YOUR INDEPENDENT LOCAL NEWSPAPER: I started Old Mission Gazette in 2015 because I felt a calling to provide the Old Mission Peninsula community with local news. After decades of writing for newspapers and magazines like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, I really just wanted to write about my own community where I grew up on a cherry farm and raised my own family. So I started my own newspaper.
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