Speakers laud $11.3 million library project at groundbreaking 신용카드현금화
by Lynn Freehill, Virgin Islands Daily News
St. Thomas: September 8, 2006 High-ranking government officials, together with V.I. residents who have advocated for a new library more than two decades, gathered Thursday to break ground on the historic St. Thomas Regional Library and Records Center.
On a knoll with panoramic valley views across estates Charlotte Amalie and Tutu, the dozens in attendance said the $11.3 million facility will offer the people of St. Thomas and St. John – particularly students – unprecedented access to information and learning. 카드깡
“I can barely keep my feet on the ground,” said Carol Lotz-Felix, who called for the facility for years as president of the Friends of the St. Thomas Public Libraries. Then, choking up, she added: “This has been a long fight for many people, many of whom are no longer with us to see this day.”
A freshly cut road leads up to the site, just north of Plaza Extra supermarket, where the 57,000-square-foot center is to be constructed during the next 15 to 18 months.
A public-private project, the library will be built with $9 million from bond issuances passed in June by the V.I. Public Finance Authority and another $2.3 million contributed by Tutu Park Mall. The company participates in the Economic Development Commission program that offers tax incentives in exchange for investment in the territory. 소액결제현금화
Assistant Commissioner Claudette Lewis, whose Department of Planning and Natural Resources oversees the territory’s libraries, was roundly praised Thursday as a resolute force who pushed for years to get a state-of-the-art library built. The existing Enid Baa Library is rickety and cramped, and its hard-to-access location in downtown Charlotte Amalie has been blamed in part for low usership.
Lewis had plans prepared early in the year for a 24,000-square-foot library, but expanded them to add a 27,000-square-foot records center after Gov. Charles Turnbull indicated a willingness to find additional funding for that.
Sammy Harthman Jr., whose family donated 4 acres of land where cornfields once were planted when they operated a dairy farm in the area, told Thursday’s audience that Lewis originally requested a gift of 1Ã acres for the library and gently prodded for more over the years.
Harthman handed an envelope with deeds to the land to Gov. Turnbull and wished the governor luck.
In his remarks, Turnbull recalled the importance that Baa Library and several university libraries had on his education. As a historian, he said, he hoped to use the new facility heavily in his retirement. 상품권현금화
“Gazing from this picturesque site, I view with enthusiasm and hope the potential successes that will be realized when this facility is completed and in use,” Turnbull said.
The records center will provide a place where government documents, church records, newspapers and a variety of other archives can be stored in a clean, climate-controlled and thoroughly organized setting.
The St. Thomas Regional Library and Records Center is to have strong cultural and historic themes in its aesthetics as well as its materials.
Jewelry, tools, pottery and other artifacts from the culturally precious Taino Indian settlement unearthed in the area when Tutu Park Mall was built will be prominently displayed in the library, V.I. State Historic Preservation Office director Myron Jackson said.
The area where the library will be built already has been surveyed for historic remnants, Jackson said, and none were found.
Absent from Thursday’s ceremony were any children, but they figured heavily into many of the hopes that speakers and audience members expressed.
“This will be accessible to everybody, and it’s close to so many schools,” Friends of the St. Thomas Public Libraries secretary Judy King-Edmeade said. She cited E. Benjamin Oliver Elementary, Gomez Elementary, Seventh-day Adventist School, Edith Williams Alternative Academy, Wesleyan Methodist Academy, Boschulte Middle School and Eudora Kean High School among them. The library’s location close to the mall and along bus routes also will be convenient, she said.
Protesters from two police labor unions arrived midway through the groundbreaking, carrying neon signs that bore messages from “Pay the police now” to “Settle police grievances.” The protesters remained as quiet as they might have in a library, however, standing respectfully on the edge of the site through as much as an hour of speeches and several musical interludes by flutist Levi Farrell. 정보이용료 현금화 방법
Lt. Gov. Vargrave Richards, Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett, Economic Development Authority Chief Executive Officer Frank Schulterbrandt, Sen. Louis Hill, John Woods of Jaredian Design Group and John Foster Sr. of Tutu Park Mall also spoke at the ceremony.
– Contact Lynn Freehill at 774-8772 ext. 311 or e-mail lfreehill@dailynews.vi. 소액결제 업체
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