The New Hampshire NEWS Friday, September 13, 2013 7

It’s a UNH tradition - Invite the whole family to campus !

Free Events: w Illusionist Mike Super w Ice Skating w Pancake Breakfast w Sport Club Demos w UNH Museum w Non-GPS Geocach Event w Talk by Prof. Nancy Kinner w Parents Coffee w Art Museum w Special Friday event: Dueling Pianos Concert Ticketed Events: w University Picnic w UNH Men’s & Women’s Hockey Games w Meals at Holloway w Movies

Non-GPS Geocach Event Art Museum

UNH Men’s & Women’s Hockey Games

Non-GPS Geocach Event

Non-GPS Geocach Event

Don’t Miss It!Don’t Miss It!

UNH Family Weekend

For more info. and to register go to www.unh.edu/parents

UNH Family WeekendOctober 5 & 6 Saturday & Sunday

Durham Library hosts grand opening, ribbon cu� ing of new building a� er $4.8 million renovation project

By CATIE HALLSTAFF WRITER

The scene at 49 Madbury Road was one of celebration this past Sunday, Sept. 8, due to the grand opening of the new Durham Public Library.

The improved facility received all of the perks of a grand opening, including a ribbon cutting and guest speakers.

Over 100 people showed up to celebrate the library’s change of ad-dress from its storefront home in the Mill Road Plaza to Madbury Road. UNH seniors Jordan Pritikin and Alex Ivanov were in attendance.

“It’s an awesome facility,” Pri-tikin said after he and Ivanov toured the building.

The library’s most noticeable change, aside from the location, is

its size.According to Thomas Madden,

library director, the library outgrew its storefront space, which offered 3,000 square feet. The new library lends itself to 10,500 square feet.

“It always cramped our abil-ity to move,” Madden said of the storefront property. “The staff area was an aisle with worn out, beat up carpet. … There was nothing good about the old space, except the peo-

ple that worked there.” The extra 7,500 square feet of

space means more opportunity to Madden.

“Well now what? What do we do with this beautiful facil-ity?” Madden asked in his opening speech.

Madden had several ideas, which he listed, such as increased children’s programming, more com-puters, meeting spaces that can be

reserved online and space for staff.In the old location, the mere

3,000 square feet meant that chil-dren’s programming had to be hosted at the local high school, and staff areas were limited in size and function.

Many were visibly impressed with the larger facility. However, the building is also full of green sur-prises that would make any environ-mentalist proud.

For example, small solar pan-els, approximately one foot long and one foot high, cover one side of the library’s roof.

The panels are unostentatious, as they lie close to the roof.

In addition, the back of the li-brary hosts a landscaped rain garden to handle storm water runoff from the parking lot and library roof.

“As we did our research on where to invest our money in terms of keeping this building as green as possible and saving money, one of the things we discovered is that investing in insulation, which isn’t sexy … saves you tons of money,” Madden said in regards to sustain-ability.

The entire project—the buying and renovation of the property, im-plementation of sustainable efforts, and addition of more technology—cost $4.8 million in total. Madden

said that the funds came from a bond vote and fundraising.

“We had a little over a mil-lion dollars at hand that we fund-raised, so we could afford [the site we wanted],” Madden said. “With all the fundraising we did over the years … we raised $2.2 million dol-lars. And, actually, $500,000 of that came in bequest from the estate of Margery Milne. … Then we went for a bond vote of $2.6 million dol-lars that passed by 74 percent.”

Despite its new look, the li-brary has an old history.

The Durham Public Library was not originally located in the Mill Road Plaza but, rather, it used be a part of the Dimond Library on the UNH campus.

Todd Selig, Durham Town Ad-ministrator, explained that 16 to 17 years ago, the Dimond library want-ed to expand. Thus, the Durham Public Library was forced to fi nd a new location.

It found its home at the Mill Road Plaza, where it stayed until the library could fi nd a new locale—a process that took 15 years, Selig said.

During that 15-year period, some residents did not appreciate the storefront location.

“I was surprised to see the town’s library was in a strip mall,

especially in a university town,” Lisa Pfeiffer said upon her move from Colorado to New Hampshire. Pfeiffer has been a Durham resident for fi ve years, and she attended the library’s grand opening.

“I am thrilled that this has come to fruition,” she said, looking around at the building.

While the building has been equipped with modern technology and a café on the inside, it still has a historical tie to Durham.

“I remember as a student at UNH coming here to drink tea with the professor that lived here,” Bar-bara Siegert, a Durham resident for 25 years, said.

According to Siegert, town res-idents were afraid that the old house would have to be taken down in or-der to make room for the library.

That was not the case.“They kept the front of the

house the same,” Siegert said. “It’s the same building the professor lived in all those years ago.”

Though Madden explained the capabilities of the library’s new space and its sustainability, he highlighted the unique oppor-tunities the facility offered town residents.

“This is your library,” he said. “It’s up to you to determine ho w you want to use it.”

In terms of keeping this building as green as possible, one of the things we discovered is that investing in insulation, which isn’t sexy … saves you tons of money.”

Thomas MaddenDirector, Durham Public Library

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