April 20, 2016 To The Town Board and Community of Clayton As a public library under the authority of the New York State Board of Regents, within the State Education Department, we are mandated to meet eleven minimum standards. One standard requires us, once a year, to formally apprise the State and our community of the work we have been about and how we utilized public funds. We are pleased to present to the Board and the residents of the Town, Depauville Free Library’s 2015 Annual Report. Chartered in 1955 to serve the residents of the Town of Clayton, Depauville Free Library strives to develop collections and programs to nurture young and old, promote public discourse, provide a community space, and furnish resources that fuel the imagination. This year our accomplishments exceeded our expectations; 2015 was productive and transformative. In the spring of the year, the library conceived and established the Town of Clayton Seed Library. Seed Library Mission Statement: To create a culture of learning, sharing, and community through sustainable seed saving that reclaims seeds as a public resource, encourages biodiversity as an alternative to genetically modified seeds, fosters self-reliance over large food producers, advances food security, promotes a healthy diet, and develops seeds adapted to thrive in the soils and climate of our region. To collect seeds of local heirloom varieties and the folk stories that come with them to stave the loss of native seed, our natural environment, and our North County history. The only one in our region and one of only 300 nationwide when we began, our seed library is dedicated to preserving and sharing organic, heirloom varieties of vegetables, herbs, and wildflowers, and adapting them to our local growing conditions.
Transcript
April 20, 2016
To The Town Board and Community of Clayton
As a public library under the authority of the New York State Board of Regents, within the State
Education Department, we are mandated to meet eleven minimum standards. One standard requires us,
once a year, to formally apprise the State and our community of the work we have been about and how
we utilized public funds.
We are pleased to present to the Board and the residents of the Town, Depauville Free Library’s 2015
Annual Report.
Chartered in 1955 to serve the residents of the Town of Clayton, Depauville Free Library strives to
develop collections and programs to nurture young and old, promote public discourse, provide a
community space, and furnish resources that fuel the imagination.
This year our accomplishments exceeded our expectations; 2015 was productive and transformative.
In the spring of the year, the library conceived and established the Town of Clayton Seed Library.
Seed Library Mission Statement:
To create a culture of learning, sharing, and community through
sustainable seed saving that reclaims seeds as a public resource,
encourages biodiversity as an alternative to genetically modified
seeds, fosters self-reliance over large food producers, advances
food security, promotes a healthy diet, and develops seeds adapted
to thrive in the soils and climate of our region.
To collect seeds of local heirloom varieties and the folk stories that
come with them to stave the loss of native seed, our natural
environment, and our North County history.
The only one in our region and one of only 300 nationwide when we began, our seed library is dedicated
to preserving and sharing organic, heirloom varieties of vegetables, herbs, and wildflowers, and adapting
them to our local growing conditions.
During this first year of the Seed Library, seeds were purchased, packaged into family-sized portions for
distribution, and filed alphabetically in repurposed card catalogs. Books, journals, seed catalogs, and
scores of articles are available to help patrons fully appreciate and easily use the new resource.
After considering various organizational schemes for the seed library, utilizing a library approach seemed
the most workable and fitting. The library “lends out” the seeds, just as we lend out our books, but with
a loan period that lasts until the end of the growing season… two growing seasons for plants like carrots
and beets. When a gardener gathers seeds from a healthy crop, a share of the harvest is saved and
returned to replenish the collection…. a collection that adjusts over time to North Country weather and
soil, improving in hardiness to produce locally adapted, and more fruitful, heirloom varieties.
To introduce the Seed Library to the Town, a Straw Bale Community Garden was laid out in the front
lawn of the library last year and planted with seed from the Town of Clayton Seed Library. The garden
was productive and beautiful and, just as a picture is worth a thousand words, it effectively revealed to
our neighbors not only the existence of the Seed Library and the concept of straw bale gardening, but it
began a conversation about the larger issues of organic gardening and the benefits of growing what you
eat.
Workshops were run through the spring, summer, and fall to educate town residents about seed types,
the importance of growing from heirloom and saved seed, companion planting, permaculture,
harvesting, gathering and saving seeds, and canning and preserving.
Depauville Free Library was awarded a grant from the Dale Kenyon Fund for the Town of Clayton Seed
Library and received support, encouragement, and knowledge from several Master Gardeners in our
area, the Community Garden at Zenda Farms, the horticulturist for Cornell Cooperative Extension, and
scores of volunteers.
The Marc A. F. Baker Reading Room came to life at Depauville Free Library during the first week of July.
The small room off the library’s lobby, dedicated to reading intervention and tutoring, was made
possible through the generosity of Dani Baker, Wellesley Island, co-owner of Cross Islands Farms. The
gift, made in memory of her son, Marcus A.F. Baker, who died at the age of 21 in 2002, allowed the
room, once a combination office for the Depauville sewer district and catch-all storage room, to become
a welcoming, quiet, and useful space for children to improve their reading and a permanent resource on
which families can count.
The reading intervention program we have offered three days each week during the past three
summers, primarily for first and second graders …while students in 5th and 6th grades with a first grade
reading level have also benefited from the program … finally has its own space in the library. Tory Jones,
our Reading Recovery teacher, no longer has to move around the library to find a quiet place to work
with her students.
Demand for the program is high and feedback is overwhelmingly positive. Requests come from parents
throughout the year to reserve a place for their child in the coming summer program.
During the school year, the Reading Room has been used by area tutors working one-on-one with
students. As word spreads about the room’s availability, we expect that it will be utilized more often by
more tutors.
The Marc A.F. Baker Reading Room was officially dedicated on Saturday, September 12, at a ribbon
cutting ceremony for the Library Construction Project completed in late August.
Budgeted Costs
General Contractor $145,466
HVAC $16,618
Demolition/Excavation $7,427
Design $ 15,900
Total Project Cost $185,411
Funding Support
NYS Public Library Construction Grant $108,441
Senator Patty Ritchie $30,000
Town of Clayton $22,000
Assemblywoman Addie Russell $7,500
Depauville Free Library & Friends $17,500 Mary Hannah Arnot
Elaine & Herb Listemann
Gail & Brent Richardson
Carol & Dick Munro
Laura & Audie Cerow
Judy & Bill Munro
Henry Custis & Leonard O’Brien
Shirley & Harold Carpenter
Bill Danforth
Glorian & Jim Reinman
Liz & Jeremy Kellogg
Nancy & Fred Schmitt
Ulea Grace Lago
Lisa & Mike Simpson
Project Engineer
St. Lawrence Engineering, DPC
General Contractor
Great Northern Construction, LLC
Sub-Contractors
Doney Masonry
B & D Electrical
Cota Flooring
Northern Glass
Woodley Dee Mechanical
Excavation and Demolition
Town of Clayton Highway Department
Restoration Work
Cerow Recreational Arena Staff
The Board of Trustees of the Depauville Free Library applied for and received $108,441 through a NYS
Library Construction Grant “to provide handicap accessibility to all areas of the library, increase
energy efficiency in the building, and provide a room of their own for our youngest patrons”.
After more than three years of planning, grant writing, and construction, the library has its first
Children's Room, bright, inviting, enlightening, and captivating.
As the dust was beginning to settle on the expansion project, a decision was made to turn a room
previously allocated for storage into a public space. The North Country Archaeology Center was born
and a few hundred artifacts, a small portion from the Knapp Family Collection, had found a new
home. In addition to spear and arrow points, pottery shards, tools, and ornamental objects are on
display. There’s even a food item: a small piece of a corn cob and a kernel, both about 500 years old.
No other public library, that we know of, houses a center on local archaeology.
With handicap access, a bathroom, and French drains, gutters, heat pumps, and dehumidifiers having
resolved the serious moisture problem in the library’s lower level, the Community Room is poised to
become a valuable venue. The library recently purchased a 70 inch television, sound bar, and other
audio/video equipment that should enhance the room as a meeting space for, as examples,
PowerPoint presentations, televised sports events, private screenings, and public movie matinees. A
new Cisco Meraki access point and input injector secures and powers a consistent, high speed Wi-Fi
connection required for streaming.
To assist with the library’s expanding fields of interest, the Board of Trustees has grown this year to 9
with the addition of three new members: Gail Egeressy, Deb Rantanen, and Phil Pond.
The library is very fortunate to have Anita James as our new Library Clerk. Hired in March, Anita joins
Jessica LaShomb, who started with the library in August of 2015. Both clerks are responsible for a
varied list of duties, but primary among them are Children’s Story Times. Jess runs the story time and
craft at the library each Friday morning and Anita takes our story time on the road Thursday mornings
to Little Buds Early Learning Center and the Clayton Area Pre School at Guardino Elementary.
Anita, a trained literacy volunteer with Literacy of Northern New York, will also begin offering Literacy
Classes at the library for adults and youths 16 years and older who need help with reading, writing,
and math.
While the library continued to grow and refine its collection in 2015, from May through early
September the construction project interfered with patron access and, after a 10% increase in past
years, library visits and circulation were down slightly in 2015. Programming throughout the year
increased by 15%, but attendance at events was also down.
The library became a site for CAPC’s Summer Lunch Program during July and August. We had long
sought to be included in the program and changes regarding eligibility enacted in 2015 finally allowed
us to participate. The library served between 10-15 lunches daily outside under the park pavilion.
As we proceed deeper into 2016, Depauville Free Library anticipates significant growth in all areas of
service to the community, the traditional book circulation, internet access, and programs like Story
Time and Tween Tuesdays, as well as a flourishing of our new spaces. Having created and enhanced
five distinct entities within the library … the Town of Clayton Seed Library, the Marc A.F. Baker
Reading Room, a new Children’s Room, a Community Room for meetings, and the North Country
Archaeology Center … the number and quality of programs and events offered by the library will
increase as we work to promote each entity and integrate them into the larger community.
Through our web site (www.depauvillefreelibrary.org) and our Facebook page
(https://www.facebook.com/Depauville-Free-Library-604163099602526/), updated daily, the goings
on at Depauville Library are publicly and easily available. We submit weekly articles and photos to the
Thousand Islands Sun and feature articles to the Watertown Daily Times. We are a phone call or email
away from answering questions about what we do, and listening to suggestions about what we
should consider doing.
When 2015 came to a close, we found that we had achieved the goals we had set for ourselves in the
Three Year Plan begun in 2012. In the coming weeks and months we will look to set new objectives
for the library. Input from the community is essential to making the library a vibrant resource that
everyone shares. We are chartered to serve the Town of Clayton and we take very seriously that
responsibility.
In closing, Depauville Free Library trustees and staff want to thank the Town of Clayton Board for
your consistent support over the years and your considerable help on the construction project during
2015. We are grateful for the significant funding you were able to secure from Senator Ritchie on our
behalf when our efforts were unsuccessful and for the added revenues you graciously expended on
the project when unanticipated costs, stemming from faults in the engineer’s plans, left a shortfall in
the project’s budgeted funds. We appreciate the Town Board’s diligence in insuring that the building
you own is the best it can be, including the replacement of its roof later this spring.
As you stated in our lease agreement for the redbrick schoolhouse, you recognize the importance to
the “Town of promoting the arts, education, recreation, and cultural affairs within the Town of
Clayton” and Depauville Library is working toward the same end.
