SKANEATELES — People with strollers, sore knees, and wheelchairs will all soon be able to attend story times, movies, meetings, and concerts in the Skaneateles Library’s second floor space.
Thanks almost totally to grants, an elevator has been installed for patrons who are unable to use stairs or for whom stairs are difficult.
It has been a long time coming.
For decades, library patrons, board members, and staff have discussed the need for an elevator, to make the important second floor of the library accessible to all.
What has made the elevator construction possible now, in addition to the grants, is knowing the historic building’s future, said Library Board President Susanne Guske.
For years, discussion about the obvious need for an elevator was complicated by how the building might expand to accommodate the community. Had the library board chosen, as a result of many studies, to do an expansion, an elevator would have been included (in a totally different place) in those renovations.
In a breakthrough decision in 2019, the board voted to build a new library and to preserve (and update) the beauty of the popular historic building in the center of downtown as important community space.
The building will house non-profits, including the chamber of commerce, while being open for used book sales and other purposes.
The upstairs will remain a desirable meeting space downtown, open to many groups including the library.
This popular decision allows the structure to remain with the same footprint residents have loved, while expanding library space, parking and opportunities dramatically with a new building on Fennell Street.
From now on residents can attend events in the library hall on the second floor.
Librarian Nickie Marquis is thrilled for what the elevator will offer right now.
“We are still going to be functioning as a library for the next three to five years,” she said, while efforts continue to fund and build at the new location. “This allows us to do the best we can with what we have.”
As library staff and patrons have worked around the construction these past weeks, there has been a lot of enthusiasm, said Marquis.
“Most people who come in are happy it is being done,” she said. “It is not costing us. It is almost entirely funded by grants.”
And, according to Marquis, it is the right thing to do.
“Buildings need to be accessible,” said Marquis, “no matter what their age. It is responsible stewardship of the building, and we are fulfilling the library’s commitment to the community to be a usable space.”
During elevator construction, Mary Beth Schwartzwalder held story hour elsewhere, such as the fire house, village hall and police department, and saw first-hand how accessible spaces are helpful.
Though moving about town and using other spaces is not sustainable in the long run, it introduced Schwartzwalder, the librarian for kids and teens, to people who would not have been able to attend upstairs in the library.
Technically a vertical platform lift, the elevator will provide access to the second floor for wheelchairs, strollers and those with mobility or health issues that make climbing our long flight of stairs difficult.
It will be surrounded by a custom-designed wood and glass enclosure to blend in with the historic ambiance of the building.
The project is funded in part by a New York State Library Construction Grant with support from the Columbian Foundation, Emerson Foundation, and private donors.
