Nicole Harkins, Steve Weigle and Steve Crockett, in front.
“This is the last day – the end of an era,” said Steve Weigle, library technical assistant, this afternoon at the library at the End End Community School. Today was the last day just as the Hill was the first Portland public school to have a branch of the Portland Public Library on the Hill years ago. Weigle said that library patrons are basically saying that an important part of the neighborhood is going away with the closing of this branch today.
Steve Crockett, a 40 year resident of the Hill, said: “I’m very depressed about its closure. I think it’s a great loss to the communty and all the generations of patrons who came here – from young to old.”
Brian Damien, head of the library branches, said that there are a substantial number of childrens’ books that will be donated to the library here at East End Community School.” Some will come from other library branches. The same facility will continue to be used as a school library he said. There will be no library this summer at EECS; but it will be open as the school library in the fall.
Nicole Harkins, MLIS, who has been the acting branch manager since last spring, said: “I hope people won’t stop comng to the library entirely. I’ve already seen some of our patrons downtown. I’m happy about that. The good news is that no one is loosing their job!”