Photo: Lori Byron, Board President, and Bill Roach, former Saline Library Board Member cut the ribbon – photo by Sue Kelch

On November 10, the Saline District Library held a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the outdoor plaza, pavilion, and story trail.  In spite of the fall drizzle, there was a large turnout to view the newest additions to the Saline Library, and enjoy cider and donuts after the ribbon cutting.

Director of the Saline District Library Karrie Waarala, explained the progress of the Saline library renovation, expected to be completed by early January.  “We have completed phase 2 on the inside of the library, and we have moved into phase 3, which is why this entrance is opened.  The timing went along perfectly with the plaza, pavilion, and story trail completion.”

Waarala added, “Even though our big celebration will be when the entire project is done, we just really wanted to invite everybody here today to see this beautiful pavilion and plaza while we still had a little bit of fall weather.”

Waarala explained  the idea behind the new addition to the library.  “When we did our strategic plan one of our four focus areas was optimizing spaces – indoors and outdoors.  We have done quite a bit of outdoor programming but this area wasn’t very accessible.  For example, to get up on the grass it was difficult for those with wheelchairs or strollers.  We wanted to create a space that connects the buildings to the outdoors and make all of our outside programming accessible to everyone.”

In addition, Waarala was pleased to announce $100,000 committed to the expansion by Linda Duvall President and Cherie Harrison, Treasurer of the Friends of the Library. 

While some programming has temporarily moved, the circulation desk has remained opened during renovation.  Come drop by and visit!  Or go to salinelibrary.org for information.