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Rossland Public Library short $60,000 for renewal project

The Rossland Public Library is $60,000 short of its funding goal for Phase 2 of its renewal project.
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Lily Kompass has been raising money for the Rossland Public Library’s renewal project by selling screenprinted clothes and bags.

The Rossland Public Library is $60,000 short of its funding goal for Phase 2 of its renewal project.

Phase 2 of the project will transform the layout of the library, which will, among other things, offer patrons more window access and expand the children’s section, but work can’t begin until the rest of the needed funding has been secured.

Asked about a projected start date for the project, library board president Adam Howse said, “It’s still fluid. Basically, if we were to get a grant to cover the balance, we would start as soon as the contract would be able to start. We would love to have it completed in 2017, but that’s entirely dependent on funding.”

The project recently received $5,000 from the Nelson and District Credit Union, $5,000 from Kootenay Savings and $12,500 from Teck, but that still leaves a large chunk of funding to be raised.

Library board members are looking for grants and corporate sponsors, and they will be fundraising within the community.

“We’ll probably continue to coordinate with all the city events, like the Spring Fling, Golden City Days, all of those. Those are opportunities that we can get out in the community and talk to more people,” said Howse. “We are also looking to set up an information table in Ferraro Foods in the near future, so that we can talk to people there as well.”

Howse gave an update on the renewal project at the library’s annual general meeting last Wednesday, where those in attendance raised the issue of a Friends of the Library Society for Rossland. The society would be able to do lottery fundraising, which the library can’t currently take advantage of. But a society would require volunteers to run it, which would include establishing the society in the first place, and library director Beverley Rintoul said that so far no one has stepped up to take that on.

But there are ways for community members to assist the library without setting up a society.

“We’re always looking for people who can help us with writing grants or even identifying grants. Identifying areas where we can raise more money,” said Howse. “Anybody who wants to help out with any of our fundraising efforts is more than welcome to come out [for] a short-term commitment to help try and raise some money for the project.”

The library’s recent community fundraising efforts included a chili and book sale at Rossland Winter Carnival that raised almost $1,000.

And young library user Lily Kompass is raising money for the project by selling T-shirts, totes and things screen printed with “I [heart] my library Rossland.” So far her mom estimates she has raised $340.