Community members, library administrators and elected officials gathered Monday morning at the Everson McBeath Community Library to celebrate the completion of the building’s remodel with speeches and a ribbon-cutting.
The renovation, which took place over a year and a half, significantly opened up the library’s interior space and replaced an aging roof.
Renovations include “new furniture and fixtures, improved sight lines, an expanded teen section, a historic photo installation and a redesign of the Nooksack Valley Heritage Center,” according to a press release from the Whatcom County Library System (WCLS).
Some of the previous shelving and furniture dated back to either the 1990s or 1970s, said Paul Fullner, manager of the Everson and Sumas branches of the WCLS.
“We used to have really tall shelving; it was just monolithic and looked like a tank,” Fullner said. “You couldn’t see out the windows. And now we’ve got a nice, bright open space, where you can see people across the library … It is a joy to be in here.”
Everson Mayor John Perry, Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu, Rep. Sharon Shewmake and Sen. Simon Sefzik were in attendance.
The remodel was partially funded by a 2016 grant of $144,000 from late Everson residents Fred and Evelyn Nowicke. Libby Mades, who was at the event representing the couple’s estate, said the Nowickes would be thrilled to see their money put toward the renovations.
“They were both avid readers and they just really enjoyed the library and got to know the staff here,” Mades said. “When they passed, they wanted some of their funds to go to the library.”
WCLS also contributed $75,000 to the project, according to its press release, while the City of Everson paid to replace the building’s roof.
“It’s been several years to conceptualize what we could do best with that money to open up and enliven the space here in the Everson library,” said Christine Perkins, WCLS executive director. “We think it makes the whole space very inviting and easy to use, brings a lot of light in and we’ve got wonderful comments from the community about it.”
Perkins added that many library operations had moved online during the pandemic.
But patrons “really love coming to the physical location and interacting with staff, checking out books and materials here in the community,” she said. “This is the heart of the community and really important to everyone.”
After receiving the grant from the Nowicke’s estate, the library wasn’t “really sure what to do with it,” Fullner said. “Planning started around 2019, and construction began in earnest in 2020.”
The year-and-a-half-long renovation was significantly delayed by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fullner said.
“Something that would have been a few months suddenly was a year and a half,” he said. “We are proud to say that we really only closed for three days.”
The library occasionally made use of mobile library vehicles to ensure continuity of access to the library during times when construction was heaviest.
“This has been a long haul,” Fullner said in a speech before the ribbon-cutting. “We’ve had floods, snowstorms, a little pandemic — you might have heard of it.”
But the trials were worth it because the renovated library “is a space where two people from entirely different backgrounds can share stories, share experiences and … find a little bit of community together. And our community, all the people [who] helped us out, helped make this happen,” he added.
