Earlier this week, we broke ground on our new library! This moment has been years in the making! A big thank you to everyone who’s volunteered, donated, helped us spread the word, and more to help make this dream a reality. Also, a big thank you to everyone who turned out to support us on what ended up being a beautiful day, perfect for a groundbreaking ceremony.
You can watch the entire ceremony here that Kristy Tesch live streamed for us!
Our Berryville Chamber of Commerce–who are experienced at counting large crowds–confirmed that over 200 people were in attendance. Nabholz, our construction management company, said that they have never actually seen that many people attend a groundbreaking and that every time they’re in Berryville for the project, they’re touched by how many people tell them they are so excited for this project and how palpable the enthusiasm is in the community for a new library.
That kind of local support is why we were able to raise the money for this project, a fundraising goal that we were told from the start was not impossible but would be unprecedented in a town of our size. And that was back in the 2010s, when the cost was estimated at $2.5 million. To date, we have raised over $3.65 million, which with our guaranteed maximum price from Nabholz, is enough to cover construction costs. We are continuing to raise money for furnishings.
With no local tax monies available for construction of this library, this has been a grassroots effort. So, most appropriately, the first scoop was made by a group of community members who have helped lead this charge over the many years it took to make this day happen.
We were incredibly honored that our fundraising committee chair Tyler Squires, former Friends president Mary Knight, former Friends president Ann Richardson, retired librarian Carla Youngblood, retired library director Carol Ann Engskov, former Friends president Shirley Rash, former Friends president Calvin Cleaver, current Friends president Elaine Floyd, current library director Julie Hall, and building committee chair Joe Scott could all be present to don hard hats and wield shovels to break ground!
And now we get to turn this over to professionals! So, we were also incredibly honored to hand those hats and shovels over to Nabholz preconstruction specialist Leo Castillo, building committee member Paul Engskov, architect Butch Berry, Nabholz project manager Ann Miller, building committee chair Joe Scott, Barrows Excavation project manager Dustin Logue, Nabholz project superintendent Chuck Hawthorne, Nabholz executive vice president of operations Rob Dodd, building committee member James Sanders, and Nabholz assistant project manager William Ray for the second groundbreaking scoop.
We couldn’t have reached this goal without the support of our local city, county, and state officials and so many local individuals, families, and businesses. You’ll see some of these supporters in the front row of this picture of everyone who attended. It was quite a crowd!
We had tables set up, courtesy of the library and Nabholz, with chairs borrowed from Friends president Elaine and tents provided by Nabholz. You could buy Friends swag and get a delicious free cookie made by Neeley Butler, a talented local baker; sign the frame of a special commemorative article about the groundbreaking now on display at the library; and see the interior floor plan on an easel.
We scheduled the groundbreaking on April 1 for two reasons. The first being that it marked the anniversary of when we went public with the fundraising goal at our No Foolin’ press conference, with a promise we would break ground on a new library building in 2025. Promise fulfilled, 4 years to the day.
It also was annual Library Giving Day. Though we’re so incredibly proud of how much money we’ve raised–and quite frankly humbled by it–as mentioned before, we still need to raise money for the furnishings. Please continue to donate and help us spread the word that though we’ve reached a huge milestone in the project, it’s still not over. As we’ve always said, no gift too large, no gift too small! 🙂 The Friends of the Berryville Library are a 501c3, so all donations are tax-deductible.
Overall, it was a very wonderful day, and we cannot wait to see everyone back next spring for the ribbon cutting!
A special thank you to David Bell, Steve Johnson, Kelli Ramirez, Deyli Ramirez, and Carol Sue Wooten for taking pictures and letting us use them!
Did you attend the groundbreaking? Do you have more pictures of the groundbreaking to share? What are you most excited for in the new library? Tell us in the comments!
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