Just Some Photos

We are labeling everything that is to go back to Lamar Street. We are doing this to make it as easy as possible for the movers to put things in the correct places at LB. If we set shelves in the wrong place it takes much work to move them again. Once is enough, huh? We have a diagram of the library which has areas designated - this way all of the library employees and movers know where things are to go. We aren't putting everything back as it was. That would be too easy!!




Yes, we have a "days until we move" tear off. Actually as I write this there are six days...but who's counting!!

A couple of folks are getting new desks. Some of the desks are really old. This photo is from our administrative assistant's office. While we have been here, her office always seems to be the place we put stuff like this. It's funny, we're in a warehouse, you'd think it could be put anywhere, right?

It really helps to be next to a store that has lots of boxes. Hmmmm...

Next week we are open only Monday through Wednesday, November 24 - 26. We will close at 6pm Wednesday. When we lock up that night we will not be open again to the public until Monday morning, December 15th at 10:30. More blogging as we move back. It's almost over.

Reminiscing and a Plan

It looks like we will be opening the Lake Blackshear Regional Library at 307 East Lamar Street at 10 am the morning of December 15. We finally have gotten a date. Finally!!! We will work at the old Manhattan building through Wednesday November 26. We will then break for Thanksgiving. The library will stay closed until we open December 15. We will have been away from East Lamar for approximately ten months or 304 days. As the song goes - "What a long strange trip it's been."

Thursday night, 1 March 2007, happened to be my night to work late. It was a horrible day for weather. I watch the weather regularly and knew the day would be tough. If I remember correctly, we had off and on sunshine that day. I believe we had a good breeze going and occasional rain. I watched several radar sites and watched the storm blow into Alabama. I read the stories about the students killed at the high school over there. I continued to watch that one storm. It looked like it would come near us. As 8 o'clock neared, I looked at the radar one last time and thought the storm would barely miss Americus. I live in Ellaville and did not think we would be in any trouble up there.

About 8:15 pm I locked the library and went to my car. I drove out of the parking lot across Lamar Street to Strife Street and down to Forsyth. I then turned left and headed for home. It never entered my mind that 45 minutes later a tornado would tear through the area. As I arrived home we watched the weather to see what would happen, if anything. The weather up there was not great, but it sure wasn't as bad as the hurricane that came through in 2005. A little after nine we began to hear reports of a tornado hitting Americus. We figured it was not that big of a deal. That deal changed when we saw the first pictures of Winn Dixie. Wow!!! We watched in amazement as report after report came over the television. I wondered what else had been hit or destroyed.

The next morning I received a call from Anne Isbell, our director. She had been able to "get in" to see the library. She said the library was okay. She went on to tell me there was a lot of damage around the library and further east. Indeed, every building on the south side of Lamar Street beginning just after the library had been damaged if not completely destroyed. We had just missed it. Dodged the bullet!!!

Once we were able to return to work and the business of cleaning up the town began, we noticed small cracks in some of the walls. Were those there before? We did not think so. We called some folks to look at it, including at least one engineer. We were assured the building was structurally sound and there was no danger. We continued working - business as usual.

As days passed we began to notice the cracks getting bigger. You can see the photos from one of the early blogs. A crew of folks came to look at it again. This time, however, we were told the building needed to be repaired. We were told we may have to move. How exciting! Well, maybe not. Perhaps they would be able to repair the library without our moving. As you know, we were eventually told we would have to leave. The entire front of the building going back about 20 or so feet on each side would have to be taken off and rebuilt. We would have to vacate. Now it would be easy for us to leave, but if we had to take everything - that's a different story. Of course, we knew we would. So, during the Fall of 2007 Anne Isbell, Linda Erkhart and I searched the city for a suitable temporary library.

We looked at many different places. Some of them were horrible - spider webs, no light, no where to park, no handicap accessibility, etc. We had decided on two places as finalist. I won't tell you where, but they were small. We thought we might be able to make it work. For several weeks we drove past the old Manhattan Shirt Factory building on Tripp Street thinking there was no way that place could be used. It had to be trashed inside - after all, it had been empty for hundreds of years! I don't know, twenty maybe? Anyway, we just knew it was in awful shape. I don't remember how we decided to check it out, but we did. We went in and looked and were amazed to see how well kept it was. We knew right off this may work.

You know the rest of the story. In January, a library moving crew came and moved all of our stuff. Again, you can check out the earlier blogs. Ten months went by and here we are. We knew we would move before the end of the year and actually thought it may be sooner, but the first two weeks in December are the target.

So what happens now? It looks like the movers will not be here until the week of Thanksgiving or the following week. In the meantime, we have to pack up a lot of things. Our personal things are for us to pack and mostly move. I want to move my own things. The desk and the bookshelf in my office - they can move. Beginning tomorrow and continuing next week, we will tag every piece of furniture, cabinets, shelves, tables, chairs, etc. We will put tape on each item showing the movers where it will go in the library. We will have people over at LB to make sure everything gets where it is supposed to go. We figure it will be a lot easier moving back than moving away. For one thing, we already know where everything will go. We will put tape on the floor at LB with headings like the ones on the items - the movers will just match it up. We will then set everything up. It's that simple. I hope!!

So, we'll see how it goes the next few weeks. We cannot wait to get back! I will blog as much as I can - obviously, my computer will be gone for a short while. Perhaps I can shoot some of these off from home. I'll figure something out. Until next time...

Ten Month Difference

After the tornado of 2 March 2007, it appeared the library had come through pretty good. Yes, we had debris around. Our dumpster cover was destroyed - other than that we were just on the edge of a major disaster area. We were actually okay. Soon, however, as we looked closer at our building we noticed cracks in the walls. All of them seemed to be in the front of the building. Engineers were brought in who told us there was no danger.

A little later, the cracks appeared to be getting bigger. Indeed, one crack eventually got so big we could see through it. Engineers came back and decided the library would have to be repaired. The front of the building and about twenty feet down each side would have to be completely taken off and rebuilt. We learned we would have to move everything out of the library into a new place.

As you know, we moved into the old Manhattan Shirt Factory Building on Tripp Street in Americus. What was left of Lake Blackshear was an empty building about to become a construction site. A few days before we moved everything out our Director Anne Isbell thought it would be a good idea to photograph everything so we could remember where things went for when we moved back. So, on 7 January 2008 I walked around the inside of Lake Blackshear and took pictures.

Below are many of the photos I took that day. These photos are the Before photos - meaning before the move. They are the photos to the left. To the right are photos taken 4 November 2008 (yesterday). These are the Later photos meaning they were taken later. When we get moved back in we will take a third set and compare all three.

I hope you enjoy just looking at things before we moved and how things look right now. I also hope you will notice the brightness of the new paint. The photos are grouped two at a time to compare.

Into November

I have certainly taken alot of pictures, but I thought I would just update everyone without them. Later in the week or early next week I will show photos of the "new" library as it looks now. I will say the library is much brighter than it was. The new paint has definitely done the trick there.

It looks like everything is done except carpet and little odds and ends. Of course these odds and ends could take a short while. The library has been swept and cleaned up - not cleaned, just cleaned up - okay, picked up. It is November 4 as I write this and I certainly do not see why we cannot get back in by the end of this month. We will move, however, when the movers can get here to do it. I suppose we can begin moving our offices soon. Gosh, I sure hope so. We have been blessed with the building we have used, but it is not home and all of us want to get back soon - like last March.

I have tried to put together some comparative photos, but I have taken so many it is tough to go through them all. I do have about ten to fifteen I can put on next time. One thing I will be doing this week or next is taking comparable photos just like the ones I took before we moved. This way we can see what everything looked like before, sometime in the middle and as we are settled again. That is all for today. I just wanted to update you all.

If you enjoy looking at comparable photos please go to Atlanta Time Machine. This is a great site!! Most photos are from the 40s and 50s compared to now. It is really cool!!