By Christopher Tenpenny
Renovations are taking place on Main Street in Adrian as both the Adrian Community Library and Adrian Bank are expanding.
The Adrian Community Library first purchased the building next to them in July 2019. President of the library, Roma Welch, said expansion had always been in the plans but they needed sufficient funds before they could begin.
“We have slowly been working on it, but we want to have a first-class library,” Welch said. “We are very appreciative of the donations we have received over the years and the fundraisers. The community has been so supportive.”
The library plans to eventually knock down the middle wall between their current building and the one next door. This will create one big space giving the library more room to operate.
“Our initial plan is to move the children and young adult sections into the new building,” Welch said. “We will have more room for tables and our computers, we purchased a large TV, and we will have a meeting room in the back that will stay set up.”
There is currently no timetable for when renovations will be completed. Welch said they recently received the brick to renovate the store front of the new building. The store front is currently being worked on and sparked the Adrian Bank to do the same.
The Adrian Bank owns the vacant building between the bank and the newly acquired library building on Main Street. When the library began to have work done to their building, officials at Adrian Bank thought it would be a good idea to do the same. Both the library and bank are using the same contractor, Steve Hubbard Construction, and thought it would make it easier to do them at the same time.
“We heard the library was getting their store front worked on and we thought we should, too,” Adrian Bank CEO Cary Six said. “We are just working on the front of the building for now, but we will eventually use the building to add new office space.”
COVID-19 has slowed down the bank’s timetable due to increased costs. Officials hope to have the offices and renovations completed by the summer of 2021.
