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04/04/2018 08:30 AMIn terms of helping lead Branford’s Blackstone Library into the future, it’s been an eventful eight years for Andy McKirdy and the Blackstone Library Board of Trustees.
In July, Andy completes his second three-year term as President of the Trustees, together with two earlier years given to fill a vacancy on the board. While he will be stepping away from his leadership role on the board, Andy still plans to remain involved with the library renovation and expansion project he’s helped foster from day one.
All of the days, weeks, months, and years of effort culminated with great results in January 2018, when Branford governing boards approved both funding and special zoning for the $5.2 million Blackstone Library expansion/renovation. The funds will be partially underwritten by a $1 million state library grant and an additional $800,000 raised through the trustee’s Campaign for the Blackstone, another project that has been a big part of Andy’s leadership. One question Andy’s hearing a lot these days is, “When will work on the project get underway?”
“We now have all of our approvals in place, including the State Historic preservation office approval, which came through a couple of weeks ago,” Andy answers. “What we’re waiting for right now is action by the state bonding commission to actually allocate that $1 million, because we can’t go to bid until we have that action. We’re hoping for that action in April. Our construction people have indicated that their schedule is to take about a year; so if we can get started in June/July...for at least half of 2019, the renovation should be finished.”
The project includes adding a 2,000 square-foot building addition at the rear entrance, using exterior limestone from the same Tennessee quarry which produced the library’s original 1896 façade. The new entrance will be topped by a domed, handicapped accessible vestibule with sliding doors, opening into a lobby with a circulation desk leading to the new children’s and teen ground floor areas. The addition will also incorporate two new ADA-compliant public restrooms, and an outdoor terrace, accessible from the second-floor auditorium inside and stairs outside.
The other 40 percent of the $5.2 million Blackstone library project consists of interior renovations. In addition to moving the children’s/teen area to the ground floor, adult fiction will relocate from the ground floor to the library’s upper level. More meeting spaces and computer stations will also be incorporated as part of the renovation project.
None of this was on the radar 10 years ago when Andy moved to town. Luckily for Branford, Andy brought with him perhaps the perfect combination of career, state, and town government experience for the challenging job of helping the Trustees lead the Blackstone Library into the 21st century.
“Before I retired, my major work experience was that I spent almost 30 years with Connecticut’s Community College System; and for 15 years, I was a chancellor for the system. So I have a lot of background in education; and I helped build a lot of libraries on community college campuses,” says the West Hartford native.
Andy first moved to East Lyme in retirement and became active in his new community through local government, initially as a member of the East Lyme Board of Education (including four as chair); followed by serving as a Selectman and Deputy Selectman. Little wonder then, shortly after moving to Branford, Andy got involved with the Blackstone Library.
“First of all, you can’t come to town without being aware of the Blackstone Library,” says Andy, adding that, in about 2010, “I had some friends who suggested I might be interested in it; and I had an opportunity to say I’d be willing to serve on the board, and so I was appointed.”
About two years later, Andy was elected Trustees president during his first three-year term (2012); then re-elected for another three years in his second consecutive term.
While Trustees are required to step away for at least one year following service of two consecutive terms, Andy plans to remain active volunteering with the library and the expansion project in the interim.
“I assume you can come back if invited; that’s for the trustees to determine,” says Andy. “But I expect after I leave the board in July I’m going to continue to work for the capital campaign until we get that finished; and if there’s something I can do to help advance the construction, I’m willing to do that, too.”
Andy’s current focus includes helping the Campaign for the Blackstone exceed its $800,000 goal line. Funds will be repaid to the town as they are received by the library, with some larger contributions coming in over a scheduled time period, even as the library project gets underway.
The campaign received a huge boost in early 2017 when Branford Community Fund (BCF) committed $100,000 as a matching grant. In December 2017, an anonymous donor contribution of $150,000 (given as a contribution to name the auditorium) helped the campaign to reach 80 percent of its goal. Now, the big campaign thermometer outside the iconic library building fronting Main Street is holding at approximately $700,000. The final push is on to encourage individuals, families, organizations, and others to contribute and there’s still time to have every dollar matched, up to $1,000, by BCF.
“Obviously the Branford Community Foundation grant was terrific for us, because it got a lot of people started and interested in the project; and we’ve had quite a few people interested in the naming opportunities at various levels; and that creates some additional momentum,” says Andy. “When we had the major commitment to name the auditorium, that brought us up to about $650,000; and since then, money has continued to come in. It’s really been very, very encouraging.
As with some 40 percent of town libraries across the state, Branford’s public library, the Blackstone, is overseen by a board of trustees that is a separate 401-c3 (non-profit) organization. The Town of Branford funds 85 percent of the library’s operating budget and the Trustees raise the other 15 percent every year. The contributes significantly to special capital projects such as the expansion/renovation.
“We really are Branford’s library,” says Andy, who shares a bit of history on the founding of the Board of Trustees.
“In late 19th century, when Andrew Carnegie began starting libraries, other people said, ‘We want a library, too.’ So community groups came together to form libraries; and that’s what happened in Branford,” says Andy. “A community group decided they wanted a library; and they needed to raise money, and one of the people they thought they’d check with was Timothy Blackstone in Chicago. And then, of course, he paid for the whole thing. And the role of the Trustees was, and remains, that we’re really trustees for the public interest; in what the Blackstone library represents for this community and offers to this community.”
All through his effort to lead the library into its next phase of growth and use, Andy’s encountered questions from those who feel there’s no need to change. You could say his answer is written on the walls of the Blackstone–just step into the rotunda and look up.
“Some people who love the library would say, ‘Why do we need to do anything different? It’s perfect the way it is.’ And I remind them that in the rotunda are eight murals that depict the history of book-making from the beginning of time. It starts with Egyptian papyrus and ends with bookbinding in 1895, the year before the library opened. And the whole point is, over time, things change. And certainly we know since 1895 things have changed.”
The change that’s being built into the library expansion focuses on the Blackstone not only as a library with growing services and expanding programming, but as a community and civic center of the town, says Andy.
“I think everybody in Branford really takes a lot of pride in the Blackstone Library, and not just because of the iconic structure, although certainly that’s part of it; but I think what we feel is more important really is what goes on inside the library,” says Andy. “The range of programs are terrific. Obviously, people come here for the traditional function of the library but it’s really a community center, a civic center. People of all ages enjoy all of the programs here. When we did a strategic planning a few years ago, one of our goals was to work more closely with the public schools; and the staff doing tremendous job with that...With the renovation, with greater space for youth services, both children and teens. we think we’re going to be able to do even more than that. So the prospect for the completion of the renovation is really very exciting. Because as much as we have been able to accomplish and are accomplishing now, we think we’re going to be able to accomplish that much more.”
While most in the community may be aware of the news about the library expansion, the story of how the project began and what it took to succeed is less well known. Andy shares the backstory.
“When I first became president, within two months, the board decided, with my encouragement, that we would do a strategic plan; and then we began looking for a consultant,” he recalls. “And then, two months after that, our [former] director decided that she was going to leave for another position...The trustees, to their credit, decided, ‘Okay, we’re going to have to do a search, but we’re going to continue with the strategic plan.’ And I remember at the Dec. 2012 [trustees] meeting both approving a strategic plan and approving a new director.”
Blackstone Director Karen Jensen joined the staff in 2013 and was charged by the Trustees with implementing the strategic plan.
“Over a three-year period, we have accomplished a lot in implementing that plan,” says Andy. “One aspect of the plan was to do an architectural review of the facility to determine what we needed to do to ensure we were moving into the 21st century, the way a 21st century library ought to be. And from that study came some goals, and then a conceptual plan, and then the schematic design/development phase.”
Years of effort nearly fell short in the fall of 2017, when the state’s budget woes came ashore in Branford, causing concern that the town might decide against making the financial commitment for the Blackstone expansion/renovation project.
“Last fall, we thought, ‘We can’t believe all this is going to fail at the last minute,’” says Andy. “Because of the state (library grant) deadline, we had to get the town’s commitment to funding by March 2018, and with the state budget crisis, the town didn’t want to make the commitment because they didn’t know where that [budget] was going to be. And so it was worrisome – despite all we’d done, we knew the town probably wasn’t going to commit without the $1 million from the state.”
Once the state passed a budget in late October, the Trustees began working with the town to quickly refocus on funding the project; with the final vote for funding approval coming down in January.
“Our [celebration] reception at the library on January 28 was a very joyous and festive occasion,” says Andy. “It’s certainly been an adventure, the whole time. I think, for all of us on the board, it’s been a great time; and we have a lot to show for it.”
To make contributions to the Campaign for the Blackstone and more information on the expansion/renovation project, visit the library website here For information about a Campaign for the Blackstone naming opportunity, email kjensen@blackstonelibrary.org