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MOUNT CLEMENS — After about two years of renovations and a temporary location, the Mount Clemens Public Library is getting ready to move back to its 150 Cass Ave. location and open by mid-November.
Approved by voters with the passing of an $8.8 million bond proposal in 2020, the library began moving from its temporary location at 300 N. Groesbeck Highway on Oct. 20. Library officials were waiting for the certificate of occupancy to be granted before starting the move.
“Supply chains have really been problematic over the last couple years, as it is for everybody,” Brandon Bowman, library director, said about delays getting renovation materials.
Much of the delayed materials have been a result of certain green materials needing to be imported, such as resin exterior panels from the Netherlands.
“We were supposed to be done with this project in March of this year, and material delays and everything have pushed us back this far,” Bowman said.
Those green materials are part of a goal to make the renovated library as efficient as possible, making the building more environmentally friendly and cheaper to maintain. This is being done by using more durable materials, LED lighting and even installing a geothermal heating system.
“The geothermal system will pay for itself probably within the next decade,” Bowman said. “And it’s a component system, so if any part of it breaks, it’s really just switching out a component rather than redoing the whole system, which we had to do with our old system … A (broken) pump would be maybe a couple thousand dollars versus $100,000 for our old boiler, which was happening before. It is much more cost effective.”
In total, the green upgrades, while not enough to make LEED certification, will bring operational costs down from about $5 to $1 per square foot. Rain gardens and other runoff mitigation efforts were made to help reduce the library’s load on the sewer system.
Much work has been done inside the building, as well.
“Basically, we are renovating the entire structure of the building,” Bowman said. “The only thing in the building that wasn’t touched was the mural that was on the wall in the middle of the library and the elevator, but that will be refurbished in the process. But everything else has really been redone in the whole thing.”
Bowman says the entire downstairs section of the library has been “opened up” to allow full use of the space, while study rooms and an expanded section for teens were added to the upstairs section. Other additions include a story time area twice as big as before, an expanded children’s section, and the addition of makerspaces.
“A makerspace is an area in which people can use equipment to make projects … that they might not be able to at home,” said Kathy McKinney, assistant director of the library.
Some of the tools that the MCPL makerspace will have include 3D printers and laser engraving machines.
Aside from allowing people to use the tools and equipment after taking a safety course, Bowman sees the makerspaces being used to hold training events, demonstrations and other events.
“I think libraries are moving toward this trend of having makerspaces because libraries are not just books,” McKinney said. “Libraries are not just a place people come and check out materials and go home. This is a community space; this is a place where people can come in (and) they can make something. They can craft something and take it home with them and say, ‘This is what I did at the library.’”
The plan for reopening has the library moved out of 300 N. Groesbeck and fully back into 150 Cass by December.
“We will probably be using the first two weeks of November to get (150 Cass Ave.) set up, and we’ll probably use the last two weeks of October to move everything out of (300 N. Groesbeck),” Bowman said.
The makerspaces may not be open at the start, depending on material availability and opening date, and a grand reopening is expected to occur in Spring 2023.
