Renovations made to Library; freeze drier available to public
Library Director Cindy Erickson shows off the library’s new freezer drier
The Friends of the Library, which is a 501 3 (c) fundraising group that supports the library but is separate from the library’s operations, raised funds for remodeling the downstairs kitchen area of the Soda Springs library. Carlie Clark, Jessica Ineck and Erica Goode are members of the board, who, along with Dorajo Messerly helped get the project moving. The Friends of the Library supports such events as the Festival of Trees and the Summer Book sale.
“I never thought before I left that this would become a reality. I never thought we’d have an addition, never thought we’d have an actual kitchen.”
Last week, the sink was installed, and the room was coming into focus.
“We’ll have room to put our freeze drier trays in here, and room for our microwave,” Library Director Cindy Erickson said. “And we have a real-life, adult sized refrigerator instead of that little one we used to have. We’re very close to being done, and we’re just delighted.”
The freeze drier trays are in reference to the purchase of a large freeze drier the library was able to purchase through a grant from the Bayer Fund. The drier is free for the community to use, and according to Erickson, “it’s going almost all the time ever since we got it.” The freeze drier was installed around six months ago. “It is the best grant I have ever written. I can’t even count how many community members have benefitted from the use of this freeze drier.”
“People get on a list, because you can’t always tell how long something is going to take for someone else. The librarians will give the next person on the list a heads up about when their turn is coming up,” she explains. “But now that we will have a real refrigerator, if somebody brings their stuff they day before and it’s in the refrigerator waiting to go in, that’s going to be a game changer. It’s amazing!”
“It’s been a great addition to the library, so it came in when we were ripping up for the remodel. At the time, we just set it on a bookcase and that’s why it’s such a mess in here. But it doesn’t matter—we’re accomplishing a lot of things.”
When asked if she had tried drying anything herself, Erickson mentioned that “there are three of us here who have bought them for ourselves after using the one here.” Contact the library to schedule time with the drier, which can be used to freeze dry everything from complete soups to eggs, to jerky and beyond.
