By Pamela West-Finkle

The Summer flew by and the library was busy! We have had lots of visitors via the Four County Road Trip Challenge and we’ve met lots of new friends who have recently moved up to the area or who are considering moving here.  I am pleased to say many of them are families with young children. Everyone has loved the library and our new bathroom mural, painted by Diane Lockspeiser.

Garden Tour

The 2023 Living with our Landscape Garden Tour was a great success thanks to our wonderful Garden Tour Committee (Buffy Calvert, Joanne Warner, Tina DeSanto, Vinny Lopez) and our fabulous hosts:  Cynthia and Charles Bonnes, Don and Vera Liddle, Ann Roberti, Steve Berg, Jeanine and Richard Sass, Mel and Peggy Bellar, Sarah Cartwright and Nick Party, and Diane and Steve Lockspeiser.  A big thankyou as well to Debbie Abbate and Mary Davis for putting on the bake sale.  We raised close to $1,400 this year and from what I heard, the gardens were breathtaking!

The Garden Tour committee usually begins meeting and planning in the Spring. If you would like to be on next year’s tour or would like to serve on the committee, please reach out to the library or any one of the current committee members.

Community Day Sale

Over sixty people visited the library on Community Day and we were able to unload some of our DVDs that have been donated for our sale.  We have decided to keep the rest on the porch for a little while so that we can free up some of our storage space upstairs. We recommend $1 per DVD, but you may also fill a bag for a donation.  There are still many great titles available, including barely-used-and brand-new movies.

Edible Landscape Update

A big thankyou goes to Crystal Francisco for making our cedar planting boxes and to Sweet Meadows in Davenport for donating a bunch of herbs and lettuce for our planters on the deck.  When you visit the library, you may want to take home some fresh basil, lettuce, chives, or tomatoes.  We have some small paper lunch sacks near the circulation desk.

Birgitta Brophy has provided an existing site plan and we are deciding which plants we wish to order, consulting Cornell Cooperative Extension.  Most of the work this Fall, however, will be the filling of the existing planters and newly purchased planters with dirt to be ready for next Spring; the removal of the giant honeysuckle bush and a few ash trees along the streamside, and perhaps the transplanting of our boxwoods out front.

We will be scheduling a couple of work days for those who would like to volunteer.  The Veteran’s Memorial bushes need to be weeded and trimmed to 6-12” once the flowers have gone and we are still considering replacing those bushes. We will have soil delivered and will need someone with a wheelbarrow and shovel to help fill the new containers.  It is possible we will begin planting blueberry, elderberry, and current bushes in the Fall along the streamside once we’ve determined the moisture retention of the soil.

New Books for Our Patrons

It is a consensus among most of the Four County Libraries that each library should hold onto their new books for at least a month or two after receiving them.  Since our catalog went online, many of our new books have been requested by patrons at other libraries and sometimes they have gone out in transit and not come back for a few months because they travel from library to library. To better serve our patrons, we have decided to hold onto these books so that our they have first choice.  As always, we are happy to order anything you desire and can assist you in placing holds if needed.  Please contact us at 845-676-3333 or via email at an.ill@4cls.org if there is anything we can help you with, Monday through Friday.  Our library is staffed by volunteers on Saturdays, so we can’t guarantee copy, fax, scanning, laminating, and renewing services on the weekend, but if you need these services, Tami, Jesslyn, and I are happy to help you during the week.~