A $29,000 donation from the estate of Ann Horick will act as a catalyst for the Gillett Public Library expansion project, according to Library Director Kay Rankel.
“Ann was a fan of everything that went on in Gillett,” said David Pelow, president of the library board of directors. “She was just a community person and a very civic-minded person.”
Horick, who passed away in June 2012, was always involved with the community, Rankel said. Horick worked at the Gillett State Bank for over 30 years and was a lifelong member of St. John’s Catholic Church.
Horick left her estate to various recipients in the Gillett community, including the school district, police department and ambulance service.
In June, Dorothy Sorensen, a neighbor and friend of Horick, presented a check to the library to get the expansion project off the ground.
“It’s been on the back burner for a number of months,” Pelow said.
The expansion, which has been in the works for about three years, is aimed at creating additional space for the library’s rising number of users.
“We want to bring more people into the community,” Rankel said.
The project will add approximately 25,000 square feet onto the back of the building and will provide additional seating for laptop and smartphone users who rely on WiFi services. The additional space will also include a second meeting room and separate spaces for children and adults to use the computers and read.
“We need a separation of space,” Rankel said. “The kids are gaming and doing other things and they are loud, where adults might be doing job searches or submitting their insurance papers and don’t want it loud.”
The tentative plans also include an outdoor green space on the Lake Street side of the building.
“We thought it would be wonderful to create a city square here that all businesses could use,” Rankel said. “It could also be a place where our library could have overflow for programming. In the summertime, it would be nice to get outside.”
While the new addition would eliminate much of the existing parking lot, Rankel and Gillett Mayor Irene Drake said angle parking around the side of the building would actually be better than the lot.
Despite the proposed changes, the existing building will remain very close to its original structure, Rankel said.
“Our idea with the expansion is to try and do it at a minimal cost,” Rankel said. “We certainly want it to be safe and sound, but we are not looking to revamp or change too much.”
“The plan is very practical,” Drake said. “It’s not outlandish. It’s very user-friendly and we are trying to go green and be low-maintenance.”
Rankel and Drake said they don’t know when the project will be in full-swing, but the generous donation from Horick is a good starting point.
“When we did this library, we had major fundraisers,” Rankel said. “The people who worked on that are no longer here, so we have to pretty much start over. There will be numerous fundraisers in the next couple of years.”
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