Book to Manchester to see expansion
Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 14, 2022
Check out the expansion at the Manchester branch of the Kitsap Regional Libraries — it includes a fun room for kids.
Work began in June of last year for a 900-square-foot expansion to the library, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The project was put together by the nonprofit Friends of the Manchester Library. Eric Cisney, the organization’s president, said that an increase in size was badly needed.
“It’s a lot bigger than it used to be,” he said. “Everything is more spacious. If we need more shelving, we’ve got room to put it in.”
The expansion houses a children’s area, with the library’s collection of children’s books and some different activities in the play area, including a hand-crafted boat from one of the architects. Jonathon Wilson of KRL said that it’s fun getting used to the new space.
“It’s taken a little while to get used to the new sounds coming out of the kids area because I started down here in December, 2020, and we didn’t have toys out. Now you’ll start hearing a bunch of turning the wheel or pushing the buttons, having fun back there,” he said.
Robyn May, who has worked in the Manchester branch for 14 years, said the extra space is beneficial for visiting families who bring children.
“If we had more than one family in the children’s area in the old branch, they were just crawling over each other, and now we can have so many families and kids in there. It’s just amazing,” she said.
An adult section with newspapers and magazines was also moved into the new room.
Several other updates were made, including installation of a new furnace and heat pump. The expansion also created room for more solar panels. Cisney said that the branch is “trying to go as green as we can.”
Other libraries were also able to help refurnish the Manchester branch. Plans for the Silverdale branch relocation fell in line with the Manchester expansion, meaning that shelving units and computer carrels were able to be moved to the Manchester branch. Wilson said that “we got pretty lucky that the Silverdale move was happening when it was, and all the furniture was available that we have here.”
The expansion was supported by the community, with the project accumulating over $300,000 in donations.
“We had a couple of big donations, but a lot of smaller ones,” Cisney said. “One couple gave us $150,000. Another couple gave us $50,000, and it went smaller from there. The community really stepped up.”
