Sarnia Clearwater library hosting open house Saturday

Lambton County Library is throwing a party Saturday at its newest branch in Sarnia.

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A community open house at Clearwater library, on the second floor of the Clearwater Arena on Wellington Street, runs 9:30 am to 2 pm with stories, prizes, face painting, special activities and a public skate.

The open house follows an April ribbon-cutting officially opening the new branch, which replaced a long-running library location on Lambton Mall Road.

“We’re excited to invite the community to our open house so we can show off this new library space,” said Darlene Coke, the county’s library services manager.

“While public libraries can often still be known for their collection of books, . . . today public libraries are dynamic community meeting places where people of all ages spend time and can learn, play, and grow,” she said.

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The open house will include a family story time with the chance to make a “seed bomb” with native Ontario wildflower seeds.

Youngsters can also experience “hands-on digging” with archaeologist Leeanne Doxtator of the Museum of Ontario Archaeology, and Sarnia Sting mascots, Buzz and Honey, are expected to join a family open skate at the arena.

In Lambton County, municipalities provide space for library branches and the county provides staff, books and other materials to run them. Sarnia’s locations also include the Sarnia library downtown and the Bright’s Grove library.

The new Clearwater location was the result of a nearly $900,000 city renovation of a former community hall, with the county providing $180,000 in shelving, a service desk, other furniture, security gates, signs and IT needs.

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The new branch offers twice the space of the old leased site on Lambton Mall Road. It has its own entrance, an elevator and a separate room for programs and private meetings, which Mall Road lacked.

The Clearwater library welcomed 500 visitors on opening day, county officials said.

There have been more than 10,000 visits since and nearly 1,400 library patrons have borrowed or renewed items more than 13,000 items, equally split between materials for adults and children. the county said.

Also, more than 120 people have attended programs there over the last two months.

“The reception overall has been really great,” said Vanessa Rapagna, assistant library supervisor.

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“We often hear new visitors exclaim, ‘This is a really beautiful library,’ ” she said. “We’re excited to continue to serve the community with a variety of programs daily during the Summer Reading Challenge.”

The challenge offers prizes to encourage children, teens and adults to record how many books they read over the summer. Fore more on the challenge, and other library services and programs, visit llibrary.ca.

Along with books, county libraries lend items ranging from binoculars and fishing poles to Ontario Parks passes, and provide meeting space, free Wi-Fi and access to online resources.

Clearwater Arena is also home to a new $3-million Sarnia Transit bus terminalwhich opened last month.

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