Bones!
This last week we had a bit of an interesting interlude when bones were discovered on site as our construction team was back-filling excavated areas of the interior of the library. Bones! Pat Rogers, Brennan's superintendent for the project, immediately called the Northfield police, who brought the bones to a local vet for identification. As it was late Friday afternoon, we ended up waiting over the weekend for a final confirmation that these were animal bones; a cow, a pig and a chicken. Library and construction staff have entertained each other with jokes that begin "A cow, a pig and a chicken walk into a library..." Pat speculates that the 1984 addition brought fill in from a location like a farmer's field, and the bones have been there ever since. We may capitalize on the bones discovery next Halloween at a timely Teen library event!
Work on the building is proceeding; footings are being poured, water lines laid, existing waste lines cleaned out and new waste lines installed. The Division patio is in place, and footings for the retaining walls for the planter areas south of the building will be completed before winter. The hope is that the new addition will be enclosed with poly by the end of December, so that the heat can be turned on in the building. When we go over for a visit we definitely bundle up-- sometimes it feels like the inside of the library is colder than outside.
We are starting to get a sense of the size of the library Commons by viewing the footings around the perimeter on the southeast corner of the building. This is going to be one amazing space-- filled with light, activity and people.
Don't forget to view the latest construction photos on our Library Improvement page at
http://guides.mynpl.org/libraryimprovement