May 4, 2005
Book sale benefits proposed library
Friends of the Long Lake Library raise $4,000 for township branch library project
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
The sisters shopped enthusiastically Saturday afternoon.
Meticulously sifting through thousands of books, Suzanne McAtee of Traverse City and Pat Hippensteel of Williamsburg culled armfuls of must-haves. The avid readers were in their element at the Friends of the Long Lake Library book sale, held Friday and Saturday at Gilbert Lodge in Twin Lakes Park.
McAtee and Hippensteel had another reason to support bringing a library there: their family's roots run deep in the township. Their maiden names were Harris; Harris Road is named after their ancestors and their grandfather had a dairy farm along that road.
"We love books and our mother was a schoolteacher, she taught at Sabin School, and our aunt taught at Lone Tree," said McAtee, referring to the former one-room schoolhouses, one south of Traverse City and the other in Long Lake Township.
"My grandfather donated the land for Lone Tree and, after school consolidation, the land reverted back to the farm," she continued. "We can hardly go anyplace here without running into a relative."
The book sale fund-raiser generated $4,000 for Friends of Long Lake Library's effort to raise $1,000,000 for a new library. The group has $185,000 in its coffers so far toward a branch of the Traverse Area District Library, which was approved by the library's board in 2002. The township has had a reading room since 1997, serving a booming population that packs two elementary schools to overflowing.
While the library's location is still to be determined - either at the intersection of North Long Lake Road and Manhattan or at Twin Lakes Park - these volunteers continue raising money. Locating the library in a dorm at Twin Lakes Park would require $500,000, half of their current goal.
Grand Traverse County is crafting a master plan for the park and has designated money to study Twin Lakes Park's past use and its potential. Once that plan is complete, three public meetings will be held in the early summer to discuss the proposal. County commissioners should decide by early October the future of Twin Lakes Park, said Tina Allen, treasurer of Long Lake Township.
"If it comes that they don't want to keep it as a park, and decide to close the dorm, then we're ready to propose a reuse," Allen said.
The book sale filled Gilbert Lodge with thousands of books as well as tables of clothing, toys, kitchen items, shoes and garage sale miscellaneous.
Lucy Harty led the volunteer effort to sort and display the thousands of donated books. The Long Lake Township resident was undaunted by the massive task because she previously helped with book sales at the old Cherryland Mall, a fund-raiser for American Association of University Women. Last week, Harty and her crew organized the books by categories, including fiction, reference, cookbooks, non-fiction, kids, religious children's books, history and geography and paperback fiction.
"I enjoy it, it was a terrific puzzle with lots of missing pieces," she said, adding ambitiously Saturday afternoon: "I think next year we're going to alphabetize."
Wherever the Long Lake Township branch library's ultimate location, enthusiasm runs high among residents in the township and nearby communities.
"We have a very little library in Lake Ann but we usually go to town," said Kenneth Shafer of Lake Ann. "I love to read and it will be nice to have another library nearby."