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COVID-19 threw us a bit of a curve ball, but we have officially (and finally) moved out of the Library building! We handed the keys over to Clark Construction on June 15, and they are now hard at work on the renovation.

We are unpacking and settling in at Courtland Center. It’s a bit of a process, and things are still in process as to when we can open to the public and how. But the good news is that we are now in our temporary space, and the renovation has begun at Kearsley Street. This is a good feeling!

We are very eager to serve the public in person again. We will let everyone know the moment that is a reality. In the meantime, we continue to answer calls and emails, and make services available online. Check them out at fpl.info!

Our moving process has resumed, and that is great news!  However, due to the COVID-19 delays, we are about eight weeks behind schedule.

We started to transfer books to Courtland Center on May 26.  We should wrap up that part of the process in mid-June.  Then we need to unpack, obtain our Certificate of Occupancy, and prepare a good plan for delivering services during an ongoing health crisis.  That’s the hard part!

We’re working as hard and as fast as we can to open FPL at Courtland Center.  We miss our patrons!  Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter, or sign up to receive email updates via YourNewFPL.org.

Now that construction and packing/moving companies are open for business, we will resume the packing process the week of May 11.  While we finish packing at Kearsley Street, Clark Construction will wrap up the work on our temporary location at Courtland Center.  We hope to start moving the furniture and shelving by mid-May. Once we have a certificate of occupancy for our temporary location, we can start moving the books and the staff into place. We don’t know when the State will allow libraries to open to the public.

We do know that we’re very eager to start serving you in person again! We will continue to update you as we have concrete news to share.

We were making excellent progress on packing and moving until March 23, when Governor Whitmer issued her executive order mandating a shutdown.  Per that order, all work has currently stopped, both in our existing building and in our temporary space.

So what does COVID-19 mean for our renovation project?  At this point in time, it is simply causing a delay.  Nothing has changed with our funding or our plans.  We just have to move the schedule out in proportion to how long this shutdown lasts.  We can’t estimate a time frame with any degree of confidence until the executive order has been lifted and we can get back to work.   

That means we do not yet have a date by which we plan to move into our temporary space at Courtland Center.  We’ll let you know as soon as possible.  Stay tuned for more updates!