Zürich (Kreis 12) Sometimes it just takes a little free time and starting a project to get things really rolling on all fronts, this is what happened at the Gallery. Thanks to memberships and donations, the money is there for us to get some of the small building work done in the gallery. Other articles have shown the gift shop and office layout but the rest of the building was in more disarray than anything. This was largely in part to moving from a large building to a smaller space. All the archives that were nicely stored in the old gallery building, were right in the middle of everything. In order for that to be fixed Amy and I built a set of three elevated platforms above the table and chair storage.

This photo is of two of the three platforms. All the archives are sorted and stored properly here.

So after we finished clearing the floor, we were able to see what we had to work with. The next thing that needed to be built was the model railroad display. A native to La Plata was visiting some family friends around Christmas and asked if he could help us do anything. We said sure and he helped us put the railroad together. This was a great help because it takes at least three people to assemble it. The final details will be put in place later on.

Mark Leschek is also a historian and volunteers with a group in Homewood, Illinois. He also donated some photos to our digital archives of La Plata in the 60’s and 70’s. Thank you Mark for your helping hands!

Getting those two projects done, opened up the library area to the point where we could build it. The shelves are now done and this area is almost setup. Ted Picraux helped with building the long shelf. Dennis Warrick, Justin Boley, Rob Meyer, and Karri Cox helped us with various pieces of this setup.

Amy and I quickly found out the book collection was much larger than we thought.

Yes, we need to build more shelves.

These are our newest set of bookcases. The placement of these two bookcases make things quite cozy and should be enough room to store the rest of our books . If not, there is another spot to put in a smaller set of shelves.

Since these projects have been built, we have also finished wiring the ceiling-high lights so we can light the room properly. Display lighting will come later on; they will be the ones used when the gallery is being viewed. The ceiling-high lights are for office use and general work.

More work will be done this week. Stay tuned to the Facebook page for more real time updates.

Amy and I would like to thank everyone for their help and support of these projects!! If you wish to donate to this project please click here. This will take you to the Join page. Feel free to do that to if you like. Otherwise the Donate button is right at the top of the page. Any and all donations are much appreciated. They will ensure this project is finished properly and looks great!!.