The Keene Memorial Library expansion project has reached the halfway point of a $9.4 million fund-raising goal.

In 2018, Fremont voters approved a $2 million bond issue for the project.

Those funds, along with donations, grants and pledges, have put the project at 50% of its goal.

Members of the library’s board learned about the fundraising when they met Monday night in the Fremont Municipal Building.

““I think we’re making really good progress,” said Linda McClain, a member of the expansion project steering committee. “It’s a process and I think we’re in a good place right now.”

Read more of the Fremont Tribune’s article!

The Corporate Reading Challenge has begun! Thank you to our participants and sponsors. Over 280 readers have signed up to help with the effort. Within the first ten days, our readers had read over 18,000 minutes collectively. Today we are glad to share we are over 75,000 minutes! Congratulations readers, we are halfway to our goal with 2/3 of our time left.

Keep reading and keep in mind our top readers will be rewarded!

Not signed up as a reader yet? Go to http://keene.beanstack.org or download the Beanstack Tracker app.

Reading Public: Library patrons sign up for our Beanstack reading program and register for the Corporate Reading Challenge. They log their time spent reading each day from June 1 – June 30, 2021 and we watch the minutes climb on the statistics tracker. Our challenge is to have 150,000 minutes read during that time period. For more information, click here!

Corporate Sponsors: We ask you to consider a pledge to donate to the Grow With Us campaign when we reach our goal. You can match dollar for minutes up to $150,000 or set your own giving level (any amount helps). If you are unable to participate financially, perhaps you could spare some gift cards or coupons as prizes for the participants as an in-kind donation. (We’d love it if you would encourage your employees to get a library card and participate as readers too!) For more information click here!

How to sign up for Beanstack

Visit here and either sign in to your Beanstack account, or click the register button. Log your time spent reading and watch the numbers add up!

Linda McClain, library board vice president, is part of the expansion project steering committee.

McClain said the committee is working very hard on the expansion endeavor, adding that it soon will be three years since local voters approved a $2 million bond issue for the project.

“I think it’s time for us to finalize these plans,” McClain said.

McClain thanked the Fremont Area Community Foundation for the $100,000 grant, which she described as a kick start.

She said the “Grow With Us” fundraising campaign is set to begin.

“We’ll shortly be rolling out a video production, talking about the multiple needs of our facility to bring it into the next 50 years,” she said.

Read More here!

Laura England-Biggs understands the critical need for a library in a community.

England-Biggs is interim director at Keene Memorial Library in Fremont. In this role, she continually sees students, job seekers and workers who depend on the local facility.

“We are reaching out to serve not only those who want to use the library, but those who need to use the library — those folks who don’t have internet or a computer at home that works and need access for job searching, for homework — for even working from home. Some folks come in with laptops and do their work from home at their second home, which is the library,” she said.

Read More of the Fremont Tribune’s article!

Below are the floorplans for the first and second floors of the Keene Memorial Library Expansion Project. More work is needed to get the details right but you can see where some of the specific areas (Children’s area, Teen area, Community Meeting Room) are being developed.