On Thursday, June 16, the Bucyrus Area Community Foundation came a step closer to realizing a dream. With several swipes of the pen, the BACF became the owner of the building that has been known as the Bucyrus Public Library Annex.
According to Russ Bilowich, President of the Bucyrus Public Library Board of Trustees, the building was purchased by the Bucyrus Public Library to provide more meeting space during the library's renovation and addition project. “We purchased the building (and adjacent properties) because we needed expanded parking during the renovation,” Bilowich said. “During the construction, there was a lack of meeting rooms for community organizations. (The Annex) allowed us to continue offering services to the community, even though our building was essentially closed down,” Bilowich continued.
Bilowich, who assumed the role as President of the Library Board of Trustees in January 2011, said that the sale of the building to the BACF will help the Library pay down nearly all of its debt incurred from the renovation project. “The $100,000 we're receiving for the Annex will pay off almost all of the mortgage.”
For the last 15 years, the BACF has maintained a single office in the ACS Title and Closing Services building in Bucyrus. According to Janet Pry, Executive Director of the BACF, the purchase, and subsequent renovation, of the Annex building shows that “we have permanence here in the community. It gives us more visibility than being hidden in an office in someone else's building.”
The Foundation has been working to prepare for the renovation of the Annex since the Timken Foundation announced support for the project. According to Pry, bids have already gone out for the renovation of the building. “We have had walk-throughs of the building with those contractors who are interested. In July, the Board of Directors will award the contract for the renovation,” she said. “Our hope is that we can keep all the work local with a contractor in Crawford County.”
Once the renovation begins, the BACF hopes to be in the new office building before the end of 2011. “Our hope is that we will be moving into the building sometime in the fall,” Pry concluded.
