The Logan County Libraries’ Knowlton Library main branch, 220 N. Main St., is set to open Dec. 13 following more than 11 months of extensive repairs as a result of the December 2022 water line break. (EXAMINER PHOTO | Mandy Loehr)
BY Beverly Arlequeeuw,
Logan County Libraries executive director
Wednesday, Dec. 13, the Knowlton Library, located at 220 N. Main St., in Bellefontaine, will reopen its doors to the public.
This has been a long time coming and we are happy that the day has finally arrived. We have a wonderful library for the community and we’re glad to have the opportunity to celebrate its reopening. We will have a grand reopening celebration in January, so stay tuned for the announcement of that date!
As we celebrate the reopening of the Knowlton Library, I am reminded of what happened last Christmas in a matter of hours resulting from a water line breaking that has taken nearly a year to rebuild. When I calculated the days that we were closed — it was 11 months and 18 days, or 50 weeks and 3 days, or 353 days or 8,472 hours, or 508,320 minutes, or 30,499,200 seconds. Any way that you count it, it has been a long time.
Over this past year, we have partnered and collaborated with so many wonderful people. I do not have the words to adequately thank them for their generosity of spirit and for their unwavering commitment to putting our library back together again. We are honored to be partnered with them and look forward to working alongside them in the years ahead.
I would like to personally thank and acknowledge all the people who played a part in this restoration project to keep us moving forward during what we all know has been a challenging period.
First, I want to give a special thank you to the members of the Logan County Library Board of Trustees and also the outstanding library staff at all of the branches of the Logan County Libraries.
I would like to especially thank the following people and their companies for all their hard work and dedication this past year: Scott Huffman from ServPro of Central Auglaize, Hardin, and Logan Counties; Wade Wiley from Link Construction; Kyle Hanning from Library Design Associates; Jake and Emily Stone from Above All Power Washing & Cleaning; Robert Lizotte from Aunalytics; Peter Stolly from Stolly Insurance; Vision Concepts; and Guardian Alarm.
There are many more people and organizations that I am sure I am forgetting to acknowledge at this time, so I would like to give a huge thank you to anyone who touched any part of this building this past year to get us to where we are today.
We are so happy to once again be open and serving all the amazing residents of Logan County. Logan County Libraries has been in existence since 1904 and has served this community for many years.
In 2024, the Logan County Libraries will celebrate its 120th anniversary. Our library has been in existence for a very long time, and we will continue to enlighten our future generations for many years to come.
The hours of operation at the Knowlton Library will be 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Check the library website at www.logancountylibraries.org for branch hours.
