New Talkeetna library in the works

TALKEETNA — Libraries aren’t simply homes for old books.

At least that’s what librarian Ann Yadon and numerous others said on a Mat-Su Borough video shot at the groundbreaking ceremony Aug. 21 for the new, 7,840-square-foot Talkeetna Public Library and Community Resource Center.

“This will be a place where neighbors come to meet neighbors, where we’ll bring our children to listen to stories, and make things of beauty and take them home,” Yadon said in her ceremonial speech. “We’ll come here in the dark of winter for light and warmth, and in the summer we’ll come to celebrate the sunshine and the rain.”

The current library serves the communities of Chase, Susitna North (Sunshine) and Talkeetna, but is less than half the size of the future building, at just 2,580 square feet.

“We laugh and we call it our aircraft seating plan,” Yadon said by phone, referencing library staff’s attempt to serve the reading community in tight spaces.

According to the grant proposal Yadon wrote in 2013 and supplied via email, the Talkeetna library contains 20,507 physical items, in addition to digital downloads. In fiscal year 2011, patrons made 45,684 physical checkouts and used the public computers or Wi-Fi connection 9,753 times. That same year, the annual attendance at the library was 34,412, Yadon wrote, and an average of 115 people visited the library and checked out more than 145 items daily.

Now, Yadon said, the library is just too small for that. It’s pretty old, too: in a previous Frontiersman article, Yadon reportedly said that half of the current building is a 1950s-era house moved to the site, and the other half is an addition built in 1985.

But with help from the community, the $5.3-million project — $3.5 million of which covers actual construction — is now underway. Yadon said the state of Alaska provided $2.8 million; $1.3 million came from the Mat-Su Borough. There were also $50,000 and $30,000 donations, respectively, from The Foraker Group and the Friends of the Talkeetna Library; $500,000 came from the Rasmuson Foundation; and the Mat-Su Health Foundation gave $135,000.

According to the initial floor plan pictured on the Friends of the Talkeetna Library website, the new building will include expanded spaces for a children’s area and multipurpose room, a young adult section, adult stacks and a lounge, in addition to the circulation area, lobby, business center, director’s office and study room.

“The biggest (improvement) I think is that we’re going to have what we will be calling programming,” Yadon said by phone. “We’ll be able to hold computer classes for seniors and teens that we just haven’t been able to do before.”

Yadon also said that the Talkeetna Library has never had a multipurpose room, or a teen area, and with their summer reading programs, the space is getting to be a necessity.

“The number of kids and parents that we get, we can’t hold those in our library,” she said.

Talkeetna and the surrounding areas also currently lack a safe, quiet space for teens to just relax or study, Yadon said, which is hard to have in a crowded environment. Plans for the new library include more seating and more privacy, she said.

On the outside of the building, river rock from local quarries is expected to cover sections of library as part of an effort to incorporate local materials, according to Andy Simasko of Architects Alaska Inc. He and the architects hope to give the building “the kind of lodge-y look, kind of Alaskan look that people who visit Talkeetna would expect to see,” Simasko said in the press release video.

The new building also will be up to seismic, electrical, mechanical and telecommunications codes, Yadon said, unlike the current building.

Vern Halter on the Mat-Su Borough Assembly also attended the ceremony and expressed his excitement about the project.

“It’s really fun to see projects get funded and get built, rather than talk about ’em,” Halter said in the video. “For me, living across in Trapper Creek for 25, 30 years, it’s fun to see the northern Valley continue to develop.”

State Representative Wes Keller had good things to say about the library from a governmental perspective.

“You know state government works when communities are alive and engaged, and Talkeetna’s one of the prime examples,” Keller said in the video. “There’s just gonna be a lot of things that happen in this library that will help define Talkeetna, help make us proud.”

But the value of this library will be bigger than the Mat-Su Valley, according to Yadon.

“Having lived overseas for a number of years, I can attest to the fact that America’s libraries are unique, and the role that they play in the fabric of our nation and our communities is unprecedented,” she said. “Libraries change lives and they build communities, and that is what we will do here.”

The library is expected to open by the end of 2015. Architects Alaska Inc. designed the library and E&E Construction is the contractor.

For more information, or to donate to the Talkeetna Library, visit friendsofthetalkeetnalibrary.org.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.