Birds and Books

Driving past Neilson's today, I see this:

Excellent advice!  Neilson's is contributing all the proceeds from the sale of its 20# bags of wild bird seed to the library building project until the end of March.  AND they're advertising it.  Way to go!

I Give, You Give, and Everybody Gives

Friends of the Point Roberts LIbrary is now registered with an internet site called "igive.com".  If YOU register with that site and download the donation button, then every time you shop at one of the over-a-thousand stores that are allied with igive.com, the store will make a donation to the Friends of the Point Roberts Library for the new library building.

It's a new way of incorporating giving into your life.  My children, of course, belong to a generation that is easy about shopping on the web, so I asked them to register.  It doesn't cost them anything, they shop at stores like amazon and snapfish, drugstore.com,  and home depot, etc., anyway, so why not register and help their mom's very favorite project: building a new library in Point Roberts.  And register they did.

If the new library is one of YOUR favorite projects (and why wouldn't it be?), please register and download the donation button and get your kids to do it, too.  One more way to raise the funds we need to get this building renovated.

And speaking of this building, have you noticed that the siren on the roof of the Julius Firehall is a spanking new red?  Thanks to Ed Park and Lorne Neilson for having this happen.  

Also, Judson Meraw and Tor Baxter are working on a book and computer sculpture that will go in front of the Julius Firehall to measure our fundraising progress (it's $94,000 by my unofficial count as of today).  They're aiming for a mid-April completion.

Also, in early May, or sooner, we hope to get the first set of prayer flags/'piece of the library' flags up on the wide, eastern wall of the Julius Firehall.  By the end of summer, we could have as many as a thousand of them.  For a $5.00 donation, you can have a 'piece of the library flag' (currently being made by various of the local quilters), and you can sign it, draw on it, write a prayer or good wishes or just (just?  Please!) inscribe your name next to the name of your favorite book or author and we will get it up on that wall with everyone else's flag.  And then we will look at this big, cololful array all summer and think of the library we are building.  A great meditation for a great community!

Judy Ross, for the Friends of the Point Roberts Library

Who Pays for the New Library?

The total property assessment for Point Roberts in 2011 amounted to $588,832,369.  That's the assessed value of all the property here on the Point.  If we had a levy to pay to renovate the Julius Firehall for the new library, it would amount to $85/$100,000 assessed value: less than we pay for fire services, every year.  But it would need to be paid only once, and then the remodelling would be done.  

So, if you're thinking about donating money to the Julius Firehall Renovation/new library building fund, here's one way to think about what would be your fair share: $85.00/$100,000 of your house's assessed value.  More would be nice, of course, and it would make up for people who truly couldn't afford a dollar's more worth of taxes.  A generous gesture toward your neighbors.  

Fiber Arts Festival Coming March 16

On your calendar: March 16, 10-4, Community Center.  Even the Space Invaders will be coming....