Stonington The Stonington Free Library has temporarily closed its building to the public after a staff member tested postitive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
Library Director Micayla Hall said Monday that she immediately contacted the Ledge Light Health District. Contact tracing was done and four staff members who had been in close contact with the infected staff member are now in a 14-day quarantine.
Hall said this leaves just her and two other staff members to run the library.
She said it would have been too difficult to monitor patrons in the two-story building and operate the library with just three staff members so the decison was made to temporarily close the building. The library will continue to provide curbside pickup for patrons.
Stonington The Ocean Community Chamber Foundation has announced that it has donated more than $35,000 in profits from sales of its Pop Up Book of Stonington to a wide variety of local organizations, with more donations to come.
The success of the book follows that of the chamber s Westerly pop up book, which raised $80,000, all of which was donated to charitable projects and nonprofit organizations.
The chamber printed 4,000 copies of the Stonington book, which was released before Christmas. About 1,000 copies remain. We re absolutely thrilled with the response, and I ve gotten a lot of nice notes from people about the book and families who gave it as a gift, said chamber President Lisa Konicki. It s been really nice, really gratifying.
De Kay, 80, will be replaced by Assistant Director Micayla Hall, 33.
De Kay s departure comes as the library has wrapped up a $1.8 million capital campaign that included the recent completion of an expansion and renovation project that made the library handicapped accessible.
“It seems like a natural time,” De Kay said Wednesday about her retirement. “We’ve worked together all this time and the idea was always Micayla would take over. I think it’s time to launch her. She’s a young, wonderful person and I don t want to stand in her way.”
While De Kay has retired, she will remain the library s director emeritus and plans to continue to work at the library to acquire books and materials for the collection, which she said is her true passion.
Stonington The Stonington Free Library has completed a $933,000 expansion and renovation project that improves handicapped access to the 120-year-old building but also creates more space for materials and programs.
The library has raised all the funds for the project as a part of a $1.8 million capital campaign, which is 98% complete. Funding for the project came from state and local governments as well as private donors and organizations such as the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and the Wimpfheimer Foundation.
The project has it origins back in 2010, when a flood damaged the library s wheelchair lift. That meant patrons with disabilities were unable to access the basement level, where the children s area is located, from the ground floor. The lift could not be fixed, the building did not meet handicapped accessibility codes and the lack of accessibility immediately concerned Director Belinda DeKay and Assistant Director Micayla Hall.