Levant group longing for new library

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LEVANT – There’s something missing in the fastest-growing community in Penobscot County.

It’s a place that feeds the soul and challenges the mind; a building that could hold the town’s history and help shape its future. It’s a spot where the young and old, newly arrived and native, the college-educated and the self-educated could meet and mingle.

What Levant is missing is a library.

If Tom Goode, the town’s postmaster, and members of the library committee have their way, that will change next year. They are working to raise $50,000 to purchase and remodel the old post office on Route 222. The small blue building would become the Levant library and historical society.

The 700-square-foot building has been empty since a new post office was completed two years ago about a quarter-mile east of the old one. Some 200 books stored in boxes, in addition to a table and chairs, are waiting to be used. Much of the town’s history is stored out of sight in the local Grange hall.

Levant’s postmaster, who lives in Bangor, agreed to serve as chairman of the library committee when it was formed in August 2000.

“I’m a real believer in reading and in libraries,” Goode said, explaining why he agreed to work on the project. “This is a growing community with a lot of new people coming in. One of the first things they look for is a library.”

Goode, 61, grew up in Presque Isle in a family of readers. While he “read just about anything,” some of his favorite books were adventure stories.

He listed “The Raft,” “Red Rider,” “The Black Stallion” and the Hardy Boys mysteries as ones he remembers reading. He said his own children, now grown, spent many hours doing research for school projects or reading for pleasure in the Bangor library.

When the new elementary school was planned in the mid-1990s, officials had hoped its library would become a combined school and community library similar to the one in Orono at the high school. By the time Levant Elementary School opened in 1997, it already was too small for the growing population, so the idea was set aside.

Educators, students and parents support the idea of starting a community library, according to Goode, and have helped raise money for the project. So far, the committee has raised about $3,000.

“Having a community library would allow kids access to reading material of a wide variety all summer long,” said Suzanne Smith, principal of the Levant Elementary School. “It would help promote family literacy, and be a wonderful community resource. It’s really important that a library be there when it’s needed.”

The kindergarten-through-grade-five school, which is overcrowded and includes portable classrooms, has a library and has money to purchase about 200 books per year. But there is no full-time librarian, Smith said. The principal added that in the future, the school and the town might want to consider sharing a librarian.

There are more than 300 libraries in the state’s 419 communities. Many are located in even smaller communities, such as the neighboring Stetson with its population of 981. Levant, in comparison, has a population of 2,171.

Most community libraries are funded by the municipality, but a significant number of small facilities, like Stetson’s, are financed privately.

Efforts to start a library in Levant began 14 months ago. Original plans called for the construction of a 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot building on land adjacent to the post office on Route 222 in the village. That building also was to have housed the local historical society.

At a special town meeting in March, voters turned down a request to transfer $55,000 from the community reserve account to a library reserve account.

“We are asking for access to the money,” Goode said before that meeting.

“We have no intention of spending it. We may, however, need to use it as seed money to have drawings done to show the community what the building might look like and that it is something we will be proud of,” he had added.

Goode said last week that the voters weren’t against the library, but opposed spending tax dollars to fund a new building. Residents also expressed concern about having to maintain a building as large as the one proposed originally.

After that defeat, the committee scaled back its plans, the postmaster said, and spent the summer and fall of this year incorporating, setting up bylaws and revising its concept so that the library will be owned privately rather than by the municipality.

It also has sought advice from other privately run libraries, including the Stetson Library. Over the next few months, the committee plans to apply for grant money, Goode said.

Plans still include the Levant History Club, said Donald Nuttall, president, and the library committee has discussed building an addition onto the old post office for a museum in a few years.

Artifacts the group has been given include old photographs of Levant, newspaper clippings, a stone from the foundation of the original school built in the 1880s, the flag that flew over the old post office and its 1965 dedication plaque.

“We want people to see the history of the town and become more knowledgeable about the place where they live,” said Nuttall, who moved to Levant about four years ago. “Having a library would help bring people together and we need another community room for meetings.”

Goode said many in the community have been generous. Firefighters have offered to paint the building, an oil dealer agreed to donate fuel for the first year the library is open, and others have volunteered to build shelves and catalog books.

“I guess we’ve come a long way, but we haven’t realized our dream, yet,” said Goode. “We learned a lot along the way though.”

To contribute to the Levant library or to obtain more information on the project, contact Goode at 884-7264.