The De Soto Public Library soon will have a new heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.
SMCI in De Soto was hired for the HVAC project, which will cost an estimated $125,000, librarian Karen Graham said.
“We should have the new HVAC in by mid-October,” she said.
De Soto Library officials also recently agreed to hire Garland Co., based in Cleveland, Ohio, to put together a bid package for a new roof that will cost an estimated $300,000, Graham said.
She said the roof might be installed as early as next spring.
The library previously budgeted $400,000 for facility improvements and hoped it would be enough to also make the entrance and restrooms ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant; put in new flooring and shelving; add another fire exit; expand the genealogy room; get new circulation and reference desks; and add 800 square feet of much-needed storage space, she said.
However, with construction costs rising over the past two years, that $400,000 was not going to go as far as originally planned and library officials thought they’d have to put the rest of the improvements on hold, Graham said.
That’s when state Sen. Elaine Gannon stepped in to help, and now the library is set to receive $400,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to fund more improvements, Graham said.
Gannon said those additional funds were built into the state of Missouri’s 2023 fiscal year budget and are part of a matching program she proposed to Gov. Mike Parson.
She said De Soto Library board member Bruce McKinstry approached her and asked if she could help the library get some additional funding.
Gannon said she reached out to the state Senate’s budget chairperson, Sen. Dan Hegeman, to see what financial help might be available, and he said he thought anyone receiving money should have some “skin in the game,” so Gannon proposed that the state match the money the library was putting into the project, doubling the funds available for the library remodel from $400,000 to $800,000.
Gannon said she continued to push the idea, and once the details were ironed out in May, the proposal made it to Parson’s desk.
“I just wanted to say how proud I am of being able to do that. It’s one of the things I am most proud of doing during the 2022 senate session,” she said. “I have always supported the De Soto library. It’s a great asset to our community, and a lot of people use our library. We just need to update some things so we can make it more accessible to our community and have something there for everybody.”
Graham said she hopes that by the time the roof is installed, the library will have received the $400,000 in state funds and then will solicit bids for the remaining improvements.
“I cannot thank Sen. Gannon enough because without her this never would have been possible,” Graham said. “As soon as I found out, I told my staff, my husband, the board, the (De Soto) City Council, anybody who would listen. I’m so excited that we are going to be able to finally do this remodel.”
Graham, who has been the librarian at De Soto since April 2021, is no stranger to obtaining funds for library improvements. In the past year, she has applied for and received several grants for the library.
The first one was a $23,101 technology mini grant from the Missouri State Library, which the library used to buy a new server, new public computers and new wireless internet access points, both inside and out, Graham said.
The library also received a $17,788 Strengthen Missourians Grant, which it used to install a self-check machine out front for patron privacy, to update the library’s printing software so patrons can print their own documents and to purchase several online subscriptions, Graham said.
She said some of those online subscriptions include ancestry.com, Brainfuse HelpNow online tutoring for students in kindergarten through college for all subjects, Brainfuse JobNow job assistance and access to Creativebug arts and crafts training.
Graham said all the online subscriptions may be used for free at the library regardless of whether a patron has a library card. However, those who want to access those subscriptions from home must have a library card.
Anyone who lives within the De Soto city limits may get a library card for free. Those who live outside the city must pay $30 per year for a library card.
Graham said the most recent grant she obtained was a $4,000 STEAM grant, and the library used those funds to buy 28 STEAM kits for children from preschool age to approximately age 14. The kits cover a wide range of subjects, including robot building, music, math, phonics, coding, motion, shapes, colors, mindfulness and yoga, alphabet bingo, simple machines, circuits, engineering, magnets and more.
Graham said the library offers a wide range of services and resources, and people may be surprised to learn they can check out wireless internet hotspots, which were purchased with grant funds.
She said the library has 60 hotspots for checkout, with 20 of those set aside specifically for student use.
Graham said she plans to continue applying for grants.
“It’s free money. I mean, yes, there are strings attached to it, and there’s a lot of paperwork involved. But we are a small library with very limited funds. So in order to get resources for our patrons, we have to think outside the box.”