Library Director addresses elevator installation concerns

To concerned library patrons,

There has been much interest in our proposed elevator project at the library in recent years. Since I became director in late 2010, the library board and I have been researching options and meeting with architects to determine what would be the best solution to make our beautiful historic Carnegie library ADA accessible.

After deciding that ramps would have a substantial and negative visual impact on the building, we decided to focus on a three-stop elevator that would have outside access at our Adams Street entrance and take patrons to either the main or basement floors. This project will obviously be very expensive so in May 2014, we applied for a competitive Heritage Capital Projects Fund grant offered through the Washington State Historical Society for $419,020.

A biennial program funded through the state legislature, the grant would reimburse us for 33 percent of eligible costs. We won’t find out if we receive the grant until July 2015 when the state’s budget is finalized, but we are currently ranked No. 7 out of 39 applications and preliminary budget numbers make it seem likely that we’ll receive funding. As a National Historic Building, we’ve also taken steps to secure permission from the city’s historic preservation commission and the state’s historic architect for the project.

Please stop by the library to view our architectural drawings or join us at our monthly board meetings where we always welcome suggestions for how we can improve the library. And if you’d like to make a donation to help us meet our 67 percent share of the costs for this project, we’ll gladly accept that, too!

Kylie Fullmer, Library Director, Ritzville