Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993 TAG: 9303070083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD LENGTH: Medium
CRAMPED LIBRARY READY TO EXPAND IN BEDFORD
"The Complete Outdoor Encyclopedia." "Skiing the Best: Guide to Ski Schools." "The Handbook of Denominations." Books that ought to be on the shelves of the Bedford Public Library.They aren't.
Other titles of varying special interests also are nowhere to be found, illustrating a problem that has plagued the 50-year-old library in Bedford since 1958. Simply, it is too small. There just isn't room for books the library normally would keep.
"Every inch of space is used," said library Director Nancy Donahoo.
Just how bad is it?
In the past year, some 2,000 older books have been thrown out to make way for newer titles. Another 3,000 were sent to branches in Bedford County and 1,000 books are in storage. All of them, if the library was big enough, normally would be on the Bedford shelves.
State standards say the library should have seating for 77 people. It has seating now for 16 people - six seats for adults, 10 for children.
The library is split between two former houses on North Bridge Street across from Carder-Tharp Funeral Home, and the old treasurer's office in the basement of the Bedford County Courthouse a half-mile away.
The second floor to one of the houses on North Bridge Street was condemned for public use in 1985. It is still occupied by administrative staff, however, and creaks precariously above the children's books.
What was long ago a sleeping porch in the same house is now an office with no heat in the winter and no air-conditioning in the summer.
Neither building has a public meeting room for library programs or community events. Those are held instead at St. John's Episcopal Church, across the street.
Donahoo said this is particularly painful as the library tries to encourage the community to use its services. "It's hard to make the point, `Here we are,' when you're across the street," she said.
In addition to being small, the library is run-down.
The plaster walls are badly cracked in the children's section. The floors, designed for residential wear and tear, are warped in places from the weight of the books.
A back room on one of the library buildings has been nicknamed, "Victoria Falls," because of the leaking roof. "When it rains, it's a sheet of water. It's not drops. It's streaks," Donahoo said.
But a solution is in the works.
There are plans to build a new library that alone will be five times the size of the current buildings combined: 26,500 square-feet compared to about 5,000 square-feet now.
New editions of "The Complete Outdoor Encyclopedia" and "Skiing the Best: Guide to Ski Schools" will have a home. There will be a meeting room, seating for more than 100 people, the building will be handicapped-accessible and feature most of the amenities of a modern library.
"What we're trying to build is a state-of-the-art library, not a Taj Mahal, just what's up to snuff with other libraries around the state," Donahoo said.
Total cost is estimated at $2.4 million, of which Bedford City Council has promised to contribute $1.7 million. Another $178,000 will come from federal grants, and the remaining $600,000 has to be raised by the library.
A library fund-raiser started in September already has collected $360,000 and Donahoo is confident that the rest will follow. Even if it doesn't, the money in hand she said will be enough to at least get the library built. It just might not get completely finished on the inside.
During construction, the library will relocate to the bottom floor of the Central Fidelity Bank building in Bedford. About half of the library's books will go into storage.
It will make for a short-term hardship, Donahoo said, but worth it to a town that has been talking about building a new library for 35 years.
Opened in 1943, the library was designed to last 50 years. It was full in 15 years, and a replacement has been an ongoing topic of discussion in Bedford since. Over the years, it has been proposed to move the library into the old Bedford High School just down the road, the old Randolph Macon Academy and the vacated downtown Leggett, which is home now to the Bedford County government offices.
"They've waited for this a long, long time," Donahoo said. Some still find it hard to accept. "They say, `I'll believe it when I see the bulldozers outside.' "
Or check out "The Handbook of Denominations."