On Friday, December 13, the Silver Bay Public Library celebrated their grand opening after being temporarily closed for renovations. The grand opening featured music, food, local authors, a scavenger hunt, and prize drawings, and over 150 people were in attendance. “This event was a wonderful celebration of the whole project. We are so grateful for all of the community support for the project,” Library Director Shannon Walz said.
June 2024 saw ground broken and the work on the library addition began. During this time, the library remained open, and Shannon Walz reported that “we didn’t see a decrease in daily visitors and were able to provide a wide range of programming for people of all ages during the project”. However, in mid-September, the library closed for a week while books were moved to the Mary MacDonald Center. The library was held there while construction was done on the library building that interfered with normal library workings. Over 17,000 books were moved during the course of the three-and-a-half day move. This was accomplished through the courtesy of volunteers, library staff, and the City of Silver Bay Street Department. “No one melted in the mid-September heat,” Walz commented concerning the unusually warm days on which the library move occurred.
The Mary MacDonald location closed a week before Thanksgiving as the 17,000 books were moved by volunteers, staff, and the Street Department back to the Davis Drive location. “We beat the snow, which was our goal,” Walz said. The library had a soft opening December 2nd, and the community began to use the new spaces the Silver Bay Public Library now offers.
A freshly renovated sitting area for library visitors to sit back and enjoy a good book. (Photo courtesy Shannon Walz)
In the two weeks since the library re-opening, Shannon Walz reports that “people have been so positive about the improvements with the new small meeting rooms, [and] a beautiful new entry closer to the parking lot, which has been especially nice with the cold and snowy weather.” The new, multipurpose room was first used on December 2nd for a book club, and on December 6th the first event was held there: an author talk with Cary Griffith.
“People have been amazed at how big the space feels. They love how welcoming it feels and that it has lots of spaces to do work, hangout with friends and learn. We on staff been working hard to get the last details in place. We look forward to hosting programs and seeing the community at the library,” Walz said. “We’d love to see folks so come on in, check out our games, books, magazines, art by local artists and so much more!”
Thank you to all the supporters who donated towards the library renovations: IRRRB, MN Power Association, Cliffs Foundation, Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, Blandin Foundation, ALA Rural Libraries Grant, Local Bequest, Otto Bremer Trust, The Victory Fund, Friends of the Silver Bay Public Library, and the MN Department of Education – Library Construction Grant.
The Silver Bay Public Library is open Monday to Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and on Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
