Hanover library becoming a community center

Peggy Susbury, the Gardner Roberts Memorial Library volunteer librarian.

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- Eileen M. Adams/Sun Journal

Kody Verrill, 11, Bryant Pond, Victoria Crockett, 8, Bethel, and Kory Crockett, 6, Bethel, create some artwork on the sidewalk leading to the Gardner Roberts Memorial Library during the end of the library's summer reading program.

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- Eileen M. Adams/Sun Journal

Since the Gardner Roberts Memorial Library reopened just one year ago, children have gathered for a summer reading program and a group of women known as the Quilting Bees (and Friends of the Library) have created quilts and other handiwork. A greater number of books have been added, and a myriad of other events are constantly taking place. There's Wi-Fi access as well as a computer for public use.

Until the summer of 2007 the library sat at the foot of the Howard Pond Road. It was moved after many years of community efforts to raise money for relocation. Now, it's next to the Town Office on the Ferry Road and provides parking, as well as a nearby place to use a restroom.

The 1896 Victorian gingerbread building was redone inside and out and reopened in 2008. Its historical integrity was preserved. It's still unheated, but that didn't stop Susbury, a retired first-grade teacher, from holding library hours in the town office when the weather turned wintry.

“I have such a love of books, and I miss the children. I just want to give,” said the volunteer.

She received a $1,400 grant from the Libri Foundation in Oregon to buy children's books.

Her husband, Bob, serves as handyman, she said. He also held a workshop there that showed people how to test water for clarity.

She opens the library on Wednesdays, Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. On Tuesdays, she's home baking a dozen or so mini-loaves of quick bread or mini-pies. They're placed in a tray on the porch and sold to help pay costs for items the library couldn't ordinarily buy, such as a printer, lamps and a rug runner. She calls her mini-bakery, The Book Bakery, and the breads Gardner library bread.

“I didn't think we'd be anywhere near this in a year, but it shows what people can do when they pull together,” she said.

She's currently planning an after-school program for the town's youngsters, and she hopes to open the library in the winter.  It depends on receiving a grant from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation to pay for a built-in heater.

The town provides about $1,000 a year toward library expenses, but most money comes from fundraisers such as quilt raffles and seedling sales. One of the biggest fundraisers takes place during the Fall Foliage Run on Oct. 10 when yard and bake sales will be held, and theme baskets raffled.

Susbury just added another way to place the library on the map. She became a coordinator for the area's annual loon count for the Maine Audubon Society. For many years she counted the loons on Howard Pond for the society, but when the person who usually gathers all the information from about 18 area ponds resigned, she decided to take over the task.

The library has opened up so much to her.

“I have heard so many wonderful things about this library. I'm recording their memories,” she said. “This library pulls together the community.”

eadams@sunjournal.com