Revamped Children’s Room opens at Oak Ridge Library
Interim City Manager Jack Suggs talks to Oak Ridge Pub- lic Library Director Julie Forker as the library gets ready to open a new children’s room. (photo:Ben Pounds )
The first 150 children received goodie bags. Cake, sweet tea and unsweet tea were all on hand. Oak Ridge Mayor Warren Gooch, Oak Ridge interim City Manager Jack Suggs and Oak Ridge Public Library Director Julie Forkner gave speeches.
Forkner said the Children’s Room renovation cost about $250,000, as did other recent renovations to the library’s restrooms to make them more handicap accessible.
“Every building needs a refresh after a while,” Forkner said.
“They make it easier and more fun to use the library,” she said of the renovations in general.
“The Children’s Room is our most heavily used service, and I’m thrilled to have it reopen,” she said.
Jefferson Middle School art students created a mural for the Children’s Room showing animals reading.
The revamped Children’s Room was designed by Opening the Book, North America.
Local contractor First Place Finish installed the renovations.
Barber McMurry Architects, headquartered in Knoxville, designed the bathroom renovations, which Wright Contracting, another local company, realized.
The Children’s Room hosts many programs, including storytimes, Mother Goose of Oak Ridge and Ruff Reading, in which children can read to dogs.
A full list of Oak Ridge Public Library events for children and adults is available on the library’s website at orpl.ent.sirsi.net.
The library’s devices and internet services are up and running again.
For more information, follow the library on Facebook and Twitter @OakRidgePubLib or call at 865-425-3455.