Little Free Libraries

Large objects shaped like large birdhouses are popping up around the city of Bellingham, attracting the attention of all ages. Inside, you will find that it is in fact not a birdhouse, but a book house known as a Little Free Library.

What started as a “do-it-yourself project” in 2009 by Todd Bol in the state of Wisconsin eventually became much bigger than he intended. They are now popping up all over Bellingham on front lawns of neighborhood homes, outside shops, and on pathways offering ways to reuse materials, meet neighbors and keep books circulating for book enthusiasts and communities in Bellingham.

A Little Free Library is a customized and weatherproofed cabinet-type box, which is filled with books so that anyone in a community can come to gather, share and borrow their favorite books. It is a place to “take a book and return a book” with no due dates.

It is a new medium to the traditional library system.

“I think it's a fabulous idea,” said Rachel Hanley, employee at Village Books.  “It promotes reading especially if people are getting books for free without any restrictions or due dates, it makes them want to read more and it helps the book industry.”

Hanley also recommended checking out bookcrossing.com, a networking site which aims to connect people through books through enabling books to be tracked as it gets passed from reader to reader.  

This movement isn’t just local, but has become a trend globally. As of January 2014, there are at least 15,000 Little Free Libraries popping up all around the world throughout 56 countries. These Free Little Libraries are showing up in places as far away as Germany, Japan to even our Bellingham neighborhoods.

According to the Free Little Libraries map, there are currently nine registered Little Free Libraries in Bellingham with more to come (http://littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/).

The first Little Free Library introduced to Bellingham was in May 2012 by Stephanie Sardeson when she moved from Minnesota.

“Our Free Little Library traveled with us nearly 2,000 miles in the back of our U-Haul truck because we wanted to bring a little piece of home with us to our new home in Bellingham, and thought it would be a great way to get to know our neighbors,” said Sardeson, steward of the Chuckanut Little Free Library.

Eowyn Savela, mother of two young boys, dedicated knitter and book lover is the steward of the James Street Little Free Library.

Savela and her family put up their first Little Free Library in October 2013, and had a little opening party when the first books were put in.

 “My kids love it, and come with me everyday to check the library,” said Savela. “Most days there’s usually something new or something taken.”

Savela says that her Little Free Library is in the perfect location because it is located right across the street from Sunny land Elementary on James Street.

 “It’s really fun to peek out your window and see the kids coming by and using the Little Free Library,” said Savela. “We also have a guestbook in the library where people can leave little notes or pictures.”

Savela’s Little Free Library offers not only a wide variety of adult and children books, but also other goods to share as well.

 “Usually we have about 50 books at a time, and right now we have text books, novels, cook books and piano sheet music, but I also like to add fun things that are not books into my library,” said Savela. “I have put seed packets to plant, music, movies and my extra knitting needles and yarn with instructions to make a learn to knit kit.”

Savela also keeps up a Facebook page daily, which she made specifically for her James Street Little Library.  On her Facebook page she shares pictures of the current selections of books in her library and pictures and links of other Free Little Libraries in the area to check out.

To build her Free Little Library, instead of buying a premade Free Little Library box, which are sold at the RE Store in Bellingham, Savela bought a used $10 cabinet from the store, and with the help of her father in law; they used scrap wood to build the box.

Eberhard Eichner, builder of the Free Little Library boxes, lead designer and builder of the Revision Division at The RE Store supports this trend.  His job is to research and develop new uses from old materials that cannot be used.

“I think it's a great grass roots book sharing program. It gets people more into reading and everyone has extra books so it’s great to just have a way of giving them to other people and sharing the reading,” said Eichner.

Eichner considers himself a “repurpose coach.”  He understands that many people do not have the time to restore and reuse old materials, so he believes that it is his job to share his findings and coach other people to do the same.  

Eichner is trying not to use the term “waste” anymore.

 “Everything is really the starting point for starting something different,” said Eichner. “When we use the word waste, it seems like this is the end stage, but it’s not true because essentially it’s never ending and the cycle keeps going on.”

On average, he builds a Free Little Library in six to eight hours. Depending on the size and detail, Free Little Libraries are sold at the Re Store for $350 to $375.

According to the Free Little Library website, to start an official Free Little Library you must sign up on the Free Little Library website at http://littlefreelibrary.org, and make a payment of $35 to receive a packet, official charter sign and to get on the official map.

For further information, about the Free Little Libraries, go to http://littlefreelibrary.org.

For more about the Revision Division at the RE store, go to

http://re-store.org/revision-division-new-furniture-from-reclaimed-lumber-and-salvaged-materials/

For more information about Eowyn Savela’s James Street Library, go to

https://www.facebook.com/jamesstreetlibrary

 For more information about Book Crossing, go to

http://www.bookcrossing.com

Follow Little Free Libraries on Twitter and Instagram  #SparkLFL

Bellingham train safety and noise issues

 Lettered Streets Neighborhood Association members have addressed concern over the lack of planning in case of hazardous material spills and the increasing train noise.

With the large volumes of hazardous materials that are transported daily across the Bellingham railways, the Lettered Streets Neighborhood Association have had multiple conversations in their monthly meetings about train safety issues.

At the most recent meeting in May, the Lettered Streets neighborhood council discussed proposing to the city to provide one on one hazardous material training to anyone living or working within 500 feet of the railroad track.

“The city council is taking it seriously, because it is an ongoing issue and there are legitimate concerns about public health and safety,” said Vanessa Blackburn, community outreach coordinator in the mayor’s office. “But there’s only so much the city can do.”

The city has taken some direct steps towards resolving this issue and a statement was made by the city council to express railroad safety concern early January.

On Feb. 4, Bellingham mayor Kelli Linville wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation, addressing the need for new standards to be placed for rail cars transporting oil and strict classification guidelines to ensure proper handling of Bakken crude oil.

Blackburn said that rail safety is a large issue that the city is concerned about especially with prior oil train accidents that have happened in the past, such as the coal train accident that happened early January that derailed and sent coal filled containers into a creek in British Columbia.  

 “If the Gateway Pacific Terminal was built it could add an additional 18 trains per day coming through Bellingham,” said Blackburn. 

An additional track would also have to be built, which would cut off access to the waterfront.

 “Accidents and access to our waterfront are the main issues that are being worked on currently with Burlington Northern Railway on safety issues around some of the intersections that cross onto the waterfront,” said Blackburn.

Bellingham residents have also addressed concern over the pedestrian and car crossing at Boulevard Park and are now also involved as part of the city’s plan to make a safer crossing at those areas. This would involve installing safety gates so that people and cars could not physically go onto the train tracks.

 “The city is looking at these zones as more safety zones than quiet zones because it means more safer crossing rails,” said Blackburn.

So far the emergency management has a temporary plan, but the mayor is still working towards creating a thorough safety and disaster plan.

Some Lettered Streets residents have also complained about the heavy trains rocking their houses at 4 a.m.

“It is way louder and longer than when I was a kid because the trains are longer,” said Judy Buchanan, a resident who also grew up in the Lettered Streets.

According to the city of Bellingham, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulates all trains in Washington State, and the city of Bellingham has no regulatory authority.

Bellingham’s only options for reducing train noise is to close unnecessary crossings or to establish quiet zones where the Federal Railroad Administration has agreed that trains are not required to sound the horn at each public crossing except in emergencies.  

According to the city of Bellingham, the FRA requires that freight and passenger trains sound horns for 20 seconds prior to reaching public crossings, 24 hours a day.

“It’s very irritating for me and no one needs to be woken up at 3 or 4 in the morning,” Buchanan said.

Andrew Good, Lettered Streets Neighborhood Association Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission representative, said that it is in the cities budget to do crossing at Boulevard Park and C Street so that the trains would not have to blow their whistles there.

“It doesn't really bother me because I’m always woken up by my children at night anyways, but surprisingly the train noise is loud enough to trigger my baby monitor to come on,” said Jelena Sacharoff, chair of the Lettered Streets Neighborhood Association.

Sacharoff also said there is no additional conversation about the train noise, but further administration details will be discussed at the next Lettered Streets neighborhood association meeting on June 10.

Gossage Garden

This week is crunch week at Gossage Garden, a triangular shaped park filled with plants, flowers, drinking fountain and gazebo located at the intersection of Cornwall Avenue, Alabama and F Streets. It is the one time of year when the park receives the most visitors.

 “It’s always a panic book because next Saturday is the Ski to Sea Parade and everyone comes to register in the gazebo, so I’m trying to get it looking good, ” said Judy Buchanan, activist, fundraiser, weed puller, flower planter and parks steward at Gossage Gardens for the past 17 years.

Buchanan is a local resident who grew up in the Lettered Streets neighborhood and has served on the parks board and was president of the Lettered Streets Association in 1991. She volunteers her time at the garden for about seven months out of the year from January until the end of May to prep for the parade.

Even though Buchanan suffers from fibromyalgia, she still works through and keeps on gardening. She even calls herself a slow marathon person. 

“I enjoy being outside and gardening because it takes my mind off everything, the endorphins are good,” said Buchanan. “I forget that I’m in pain and it’s therapeutic.”

The Lettered Streets also recently announced in their monthly newsletter that gardener’s are needed as well as paint touch up ad trimming, and to call Judy Buchanan for more information.

“All the credit goes to Judy, she does this out of the kindness of her heart,” Mary Baker, a resident of the Lettered Streets who started helping with the garden two weeks ago. “I love pulling the weeds and seeing the flowers have open space.”

23 years ago, Buchanan and five other people came together to discuss ideas of making a park in this free space, which used to consist of land with two trees sitting atop.

They proposed the idea to the city and were rejected, but finally received $10,000 to start the park.

Buchanan remembers in 1993 when she first put up a quarter inch plywood sign in the park, which read, “Watch for park coming soon.”

In 1996, Buchanan also helped build the gazebo in the middle of the garden, which was painted a colorful blue, yellow and red color four years ago as one student’s senior project.

Today there are bricks surrounding the Gazebo with names of donors, volunteers and important community members. These bricks were sold to people to write a person’s name down in efforts to raise money for the garden.

Bricks with for non-business owners were sold for $35 and bricks for business-owners were sold for $50, bringing in a total of $2000 to help fund the garden.

To help keep up the garden; Buchanan receives help from the municipal court community service program.

“For help, I get kids who are doing community service through the municipal court because it is kind of the sporadic workforce, so I did try to reach out to my neighborhood for help,” said Buchanan.

Buchanan also said that the kids doing community service seem to love it out here because its not just busy work or scrubbing tiles.

Buchanan remembers one time she had a group of 16 kids who got busted at a party and had to serve community service hours. These two guys dug out a couple huge rocks from about four-feet underground, which still sit in the flowerbed today.

Boy scouts and girl scouts have volunteered here as well. In the wintertime they would come pick up fallen leaves off the ground.

Buchanan has also had service-learning students from Whatcom Community College volunteered a few years back, but has not recently since the downsizing project.

The Parks Department wanted to simplify the park because the new parks director wanted it all neat and tidy.

A couple years ago Buchanan had a five yards of non-organic soil brought in which caused a bunch of weeds to sprout. The large amount of growing unstoppable weeds, which has was never a problem before, has become an ongoing issue since then. This problem caused the garden was then downsized last year to make the garden simpler.

“It’s too bad that it was a forced downsize so quick,” said Buchanan. “All gardener’s agree that it takes about three years to do so.”

Gossage Garden is named after Glen Gossage, a well-known and active community man who lived in the Lettered Streets, and owned a pharmacy on C Street.

The community voted unanimously to name the park after Mr. Gossage.

 “I think whatever Judy does is beautiful, I see her out there on blazing hot days and I think it brings the neighborhood together, and its really nice so that’s why we contribute,” said Aileen Cleary, who contributes a donation to Gossage Garden every year. “It’s a cut stone for the neighborhood, and it makes me happy to look at.”