Another chapter in library renovation

By Pennie Embry, Staff Writer

STIGLER, Dec. 3 —The Stigler Public Library is another step closer to having a new home, thanks to the Pete Bass Memorial Fund.

In a special ceremony held Monday at the Stigler Community Center — the building that will one day house the library — Lakin and Jaedyn Bass presented the library steering committee with a check for $2,081 in memory of their father, former city manager Pete Bass.

That money represents half of the proceeds from this fall’s Pete Bass Memorial Golf Tournament and will be used to help pay for renovations needed to convert the community center into a modern, roomy library.

“This was one of the last projects that Pete started to work on,” said Janice Williams, executive director of the Stigler-Haskell County Chamber of Commerce. According to Williams, Bass formed a committee to raise money for and oversee the conversion of an existing building into a new library in March of 2008. Bass passed away in October of 2008, but library volunteers forged ahead with the project. Initially the committee members hoped to convert the former Boy Howdy building on Main Street into a new library, but later decided to renovate the existing community center.

Donations from the city of Stigler, the New Century Club, the ESA, Walmart and the Conklin family, as well as from the Pete Bass Memorial Fund, helped pay for architectural plans and renderings for the project. Those drawings were unveiled at the ceremony that was also held to introduce new fundraising plans for the project.

The new library will include a covered entry, a vestibule to control traffic and airflow, separate adult, teen and children’s sections, a computer area, a large circulation desk, handicapped accessible bathrooms, a kitchen, a heritage room for studying genealogy, a large classroom for library programs that will also be available for community use, offices for library personnel and a magnetic security system for books.

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