FRIENDS OF SOLDIERS MEMORIAL LIBRARY

Providing programs and events for public entertainment and education. Even before the acquisition of the Arts Center building in 2012, the Friends of Soldiers Memorial Library (FoSML) had endeavored to provide public events at the Library building. We had excellent successes with some Maine author book presentations and some other library-related programs. However, space in that historic building is very limited, so the variety of possible events was also limited. In 2016, after acquiring the building that became the Arts Center, we worked to make this much more spacious building into a comfortable and attractive events venue. The variety of uses of the Arts Center is described in the previous section, but our most important use is to have the building as a space for public events and educational programs. During 2012 to 2019 we had been working to expand the variety of these events, and to increase our publicity efforts to attract larger attendance. However, in the same way that the pandemic interrupted and limited many types of public events all around the world, our Arts Center also suffered from the necessity of limiting public gatherings. Now that the pandemic risks have been diminishing, we have been working again to improve the variety of events and the attendance. During 2023 and 2024, in addition to using this space for community meetings, rental uses and adult education needs, our Arts Center hosted about 15 public events each year, ranging in variety from community band concerts to author events, crafts presentations, and programs for families and children. The attendance numbers ranged from as small as a half dozen persons to as many as 70 persons packing the building, with an average of about 24 persons attending each event. Although seeking donations is not the focus of these events, some gatherings have expressed appreciation with significant donations in support of our work and our facilities. For some events, the revenue is also augmented by donations for baked goods, snacks, and meals prepared by our volunteers. Income of $13,643 was realized from an assortment of fund-raising projects, ranging from community band concerts, an Artisans Crafts Fair, a Memorial Day Sale of plants, books and baked goods, and from other fund-raising projects in addition to other donations, gifts and grants in support of our efforts. The expense of $2,445 is for the direct costs of insurance, advertising for events and for the costs of supplies and materials. There was also $3,296 from three other grants that was used to purchase children's materials and to pay for family-oriented programs. The balance of the income is used to support the maintenance of the buildings and to provide services for our community, as described and accounted for in the previous program service descriptions.

Other Program Service Accomplishments: Our facilities also serve as emergency shelters in times of need. During times of emergency or important community needs, each of the buildings that we manage have been used for temporary emergency shelter for members of our community. Some of these needs are weather-related. Both of our buildings have year-round heating systems, and we have had volunteers keep one or the other of the buildings open at times of winter cold when some households have had inadequate heat. To alert to the availability we have announcements on our road-side sign board and, sometimes, notices on our Internet web-site and/or the web-site of the Town of Hiram. Since the installation of heat pump systems in the Arts Center in 2017, we have also been able to serve as a cooling center for residents who have had the inability to maintain homes cooled enough for health and comfort. This need has become ore frequent with apparently-increasing duration of above average temperatures during our summers. Finally, we have been able to provide the Arts Center to serve as an emergency shelter for families when extended power outages or catastrophic damage to homes has made continued home occupation impractical or impossible. Since our Arts Center has has kitchen facilities, and two rest rooms, the space is useful for short term emergency shelter. One very specific use during 2024 happened at a time when a family living in South Hiram was burned out of their home. Our Arts Center provided for one over-night of shelter for the husband, wife and three children. Volunteers brought food, and our facility gave them the internet and phone access that they needed to develop their plans for further temporary lodging. We are limited in our ability to provide such assistance for a longer time because of the lack of any shower or laundry facilities, and we also do not have an emergency generator system to maintain the buildings during wide-spread power outages. (If there is short-term power outage in winter, volunteers bring portable generators to maintain the building heating to avoid freezing damages.) Although we are still developing plans at this time, we will seek to improve upon shower, laundry and emergency power services at some time in the near future. We do not show any expenses or revenue from these emergency services because the work is done by volunteers, and expenses are included in the already-reported maintenance costs of each building.

2024 Project 5. Another major project of the Soldiers Memorial Library during 2024 has been the significant improvements of the facilities and services of the public library for the benefit of remote workers in and near our community and to better serve other workers who may commute and who may need access to support services at our facilities. The planning for these improvements during 2023 developed into a significant grant award of $98,070 managed by the Maine State Library using funding that was made available through a grant of the federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act). During 2024 this project concentrated on the improvement of the public library facilities with two major focus areas: (1) The improvements of the Soldiers Memorial Library building for a more comfortable, healthful and sustainable interior climate by the installation of heat pumps for better and more efficient heating and cooling and by interior wiring improvements for better access to computer work stations. This was an investment of $21,461 of improvements to the building that is owned by the Town of Hiram. Because this building is owned by the Town of Hiram, not owned by our FoSML organization, this installation was a grant provided to the Town of Hiram, where the improvements of the building climate control better enables our organization to serve visiting workers and other patrons. (2) The improvements of equipment for better printing and copier services for remote workers and for all patrons and staff and the preliminary development of a new patron computers workspace area. As a temporary "experiment" to determine the practicality of our new workspace area design, a folding, circular 6-ft-diamter table was acquired and new office chairs were also acquired. This was an investment of $4,072 for new printers and new office chairs for patron seating, and the temporary table for trying out the workspace design. These acquisitions all continue to be the property of FoSML for our public library services.

As a continuation of our grant-supported improvements of the public library facilities, we also launched another project to improve the access to library services at times beyond the limited open hours of the public library building. The development of a new, exterior covered pavilion workspace was designed to give a space to visitors which would still allow the use of some Library services, even when the library building is closed. Due to financial and staffing limitations, our library is only open for 19 hours of each week, but we can provide Wi-Fi Internet service that is available 24-hours-a-day across our campus of two buildings and parking spaces. The new 11x17-ft covered pavilion cost $51,479 and provides an exterior space, sheltered from weather, and with power outlets for phone charging, laptops power and other needs. The construction of the new pavilion and the improvement installations in the Library building were all accomplished with the hired services of local contractors, providing... at least... a short-term improvement of the local economy. Improvements of the facilities have provided remote workers and other patrons with better services, more opportunities to accomplish work, and easier access to find necessary information and resources on the Internet and in the Library. This funding of $51,479 was provided by the Remote Work Through Libraries (RWTL) grant that was received by the Soldiers Memorial Library in 2023. Both improvements projects... the improvements of the SML building interior and the development of the exterior pavilion for 24/7 access to some public library services... have been developing during 2024 and will continue into 2025 with further improvements.