Under Construction

Summer Update

By Matt Williams, Facilities Manager

Summer is officially here! Our air conditioners are working double-time and somewhere in the fight against the heat and humidity we sprung a leak! With some help from the fine folks at Facilities Mechanical Services in Mishawaka we’re back and running at full power, so the library will stay nice and cool during the upcoming warm months. Believe me, we’re just as happy as you are.

Speaking of summer, the water bottle filling bubblers we installed a few months ago have now saved 500+ bottles from going into the trash! So if you need a bottle of cool water and a place to beat the heat, BPL has you covered.

While the inside is coming together at a steady pace, most of the entrances and halls have been painted, so I won’t be in everyone’s way so much while continuing to paint and modernize the interior of the library. Good news for everyone with small children with little hands that like to explore the world around them.

With the weather as beautiful as it has been, I’ll be the first to admit I’ve spent more time outside than inside, with good reason! We’re looking into a few things to help the accessibility of the library for all of our patrons. We recently added an accessible parking spot to the front of the library, making it easier for our all patrons to park right up front to return a book or come in and get a new one. Hopefully before the summer is in full swing we will also have a small area outside to sit and enjoy a book as well as a bike rack for all of the kids to use in the front of the building.

We are currently looking into making some changes to the back parking lot as well, including a new exit onto Center Street and a few additional spots to accommodate our ever growing group of friends. There may be a few days of closures in the back lot at some point in the next couple of months, but it will be announced on social media with plenty of warning. Same can be said for the elevator – with the modernization coming up, it may be down for a few days, but we’ll try to have it up and running as quickly as possible.

Again, I would like to take the time to personally thank everyone in Bremen for being so friendly and patient during this time. Yoder’s Hardware has been invaluable for both materials and advice. The ladies at the Post Office always have a nice word to start the day off right. Trend Weldy with the Town of Bremen has been spot-on responding to any questions or requests I’ve made. While I’m sure the construction has been an inconvenience, our patrons have been very understanding. Almost every day someone has a kind word or a joke for me when I’m laying mulch in one-hundred degree weather or painting what seems like the 100th day in a row, and it’s made both these projects and this job a total joy that doesn’t seem like work at all. I did not grow in a small tight-knit community and it’s really wonderful to see that a place like Bremen still exists.