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March 2, 2009

Library addition debuts

Gloucester County Times

Monday, March 02, 2009
By DJ McAneny
gcnews@sjnewsco.com
WESTVILLE After a summer of the town's residents going without access to their favorite books, videos and public computer access, construction was finally finished on the addition to the Westville Public Library and a celebration was held Sunday in the form of an open house inviting everyone to come see the new digs.

During a brief ceremony before those attending were invited to peruse the aisles, Grace Williams, vice president of the library board of trustees, addressed the visitors and thanked those involved with the project. A spry woman with a lengthy history of involvement with the library, and the person for whom the library will soon be named in a future ceremony, Williams expressed her joy in finally seeing the dream realized.

"I never thought I'd live to see this day of completion," Williams said over a microphone. "But now, I expect to live a lot longer to make sure it all works out OK. I'm a bossy son-of-a-gun. I enjoy the library, I've enjoyed working here and I am going to enjoy it for a long, long time to come."

The addition was made possible by financial support through several different avenues, including government grants and private donations.

"This all started when we applied for a Livable Communities Grant in 2004," said Gwen Carotenuto, the library director. "We were hoping to perhaps get a small grant so we could upgrade and become ADA-compliant. After that, we received another grant and a generous donation, and now here we are."

That second grant, deemed to the project by Assembly Speaker Joe Roberts, D-Brooklawn, was then matched in funds by the borough itself. Finally, a private donation from a trustee who wanted to see the project succeed but wished to remain anonymous rounded out the resources needed to make the addition a reality.

But the money wasn't as important to everyone as to whom the thanks fell for all the hard work in completing this project.

"We so appreciate our Public Works Department," said Carotenuto, "Donna Domico and the entire department, for all they've done to help us out so much. They've really been tremendous."

However, with all the other activities and visitors of the day, no person or group of guests was more important than a very special demographic represented by Jenna Bryszewski and Sammy Ensor, who were very happy to finally have the library back open.

"I love books," said 5-year-old Jenna. "I love to read. I like princess books, but my favorite book is The Magic Hat."

"She does love to read," said Jenna's mother, Brenda. "Every night she reads me a story. She's just learning and she's very good at it. And today she's going to get her very own library card."

"I'm going to borrow books and bring them back myself," Jenna said.

And from now on, the young Bryszewski will have more aisles to browse and more books to get lost in than ever before.

Posted by tumulty at March 2, 2009 10:00 AM

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