As the summer kicks off, renovations to the Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library have revitalized the facility. The year-long project restored the foyer and installed handicap accessible automatic doors.
“This has been such an amazing process,” Carol Phares, Pearl River County Library System director, said about the help she received from the many companies, staff members and volunteers.
The project started with an idea to make the library easily accessible to everyone. While planning to install the automatic doors, Phares found it fit to tackle another necessary project that would compliment the doors, revamping the entire foyer.
“It was something that definitely had to get done, but the only issue holding us back at the time was our budget,” she said.
The Friends of the Margaret Reed Crosby Memorial Library were more than willing to pitch in and donate time and funds to help with the renovation, but the price of installing a new tile floor was out of the budget for the group, Phares said. It was the city of Picayune that helped pay for the new flooring, provided by Charlie’s Custom Colors.
“Out with the old and in with the new,” Phares said, describing the new eye-catching foyer.
Along with a new floor, the Friends also enlisted the help of city workers, Bill Edwards from Glass Porch and Robert Gaddy to help move the display cases and install the new tile. The work “brought life back into the library” by also refinishing the wooden doors and the display cases in the foyer.
“Nearly everything sparkles in this foyer. The doors are so inviting, the display cases are shiny and the paint just makes the room feel so fresh,” Phares said.
Phares is most proud of the effort of some of her young staff members, who put a lot of elbow grease into cleaning the chrome frames of the automatic entry doors and display cases.
“Those frames were in rough shape, filled with wax that we previously used to clean the cases and doors. It was not an easy task and the fact that they were excited to contribute really makes me happy about the future of the library,” Phares said.
Along with funding the refurbishing of the doors and display cases, Friends members also added a fresh coat of paint to the foyer walls to tie everything together.
“This is just another check mark I can put next to a much needed project around the library,” Phares said, with a sigh of relief.
Now that project is complete, Phares, Friends members and the library staff will switch gears to the next project, which entails digitizing all of the microfilm for public use. Further down the road, Phares said she wants to focus on renovating the circulation desk to make it handicap accessible.
“These things take time, but I am just happy that I have such a great group of people around me that share the same passion as I do and a great support group in the community,” Phares said.