Northeastern Tool Library in Keeseville is helping homeowners tackle repairs without the high cost of buying equipment
By Tim Rowland
As Adirondack houses age they need to be repaired; but not everyone can afford expensive power tools to do the job. And as Adirondack people age, they may no longer have access to a garage full of tools, or may have lost their partner who knew how to use them.
These were a couple of thoughts behind the new Northeastern Tool Library in Keeseville, which this summer will begin to lend out everything from power drills to scaffolding from the basement of the AuSable Valley Grange.
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The tools will be ready to lend once a software program has inventoried the items and created tool library cards that can be coded and scanned. Meanwhile, said Keeseville Librarian Robyn Pray, the library and Grange are holding workshops to discuss power tool safety and how to use them.
“We did a sheetrock workshop and a power tool workshop and we’ll be holding more of those,” Pray said.
Meeting a need
At a recent web conference hosted by the Northern Forest Center, housing and community services advocates identified aging Adirondack housing inventory as a concern, particularly with the onset of increasingly damaging storms. If repairs aren’t performed, small problems can turn into big problems that threaten the long-term health of the home.
Advocates identified access to tools as a need, since native homeowners might have the knowhow but not the means to do the work.
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The project was funded by a Generous Acts grant from the Adirondack Foundation and a NYSP2I grant written by Pray and Lindsay Eberhart, program associate for the Institute for Sustainability Engagement. There will be a small fee for borrowing tools.
“This is an opportunity for people locally who either can’t afford a tool or don’t want to go out and purchase something for a one-time use,” said Charles “Skip” Smithson, a member of the Grange.
For others, power tools can be intimidating, despite their relative simplicity. The instructional workshops have attracted people who might never have held one in their hands before.
“You see older women come into a power tool seminar and gain some confidence using a drill or a saw,” said John Sokol, treasurer of the grange. “You just see the light bulbs go off. It’s a little bit of the do-it-yourself ingenuity that North Country people are built with.”
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The tool lending library also trends toward minimalism in a nation where some people are concluding that they just have too much stuff, Pray said.
“This really covers a gamut of people, including handy people who may be retiring and downsizing,” she said. “This is a great option to still be able to do things without having the tools themselves.”
A community spirit
And the program goes beyond tools; it creates an environment of sharing and a chance for people to interact with one another. It furthers a growing theme in Keesevile, which is making a community center out of an old school, developing a community radio station, attracting a newly opened grocery store, and redrawing its comprehensive plan. This month it was awarded $4.5 million through a state grant that among other things will make the downtown more attractive and people friendly.
Related reading: Keeseville community-based radio reignites the old-time ‘gift of gab’
“There’s a whole dimension that has been missing from this area for a long time,” Smithson said. “There’s a nice new push to regain this sense of community; the idea is to have things available to support the community in ways you wouldn’t even think of unless you encountered it first hand.”
That’s what makes the library so valuable, because people — about 500 a month — from all different stations of life are comfortable walking through its doors. Libraries can lend Shakespearian compendiums, but also meat grinders for processing deer.
Pray said libraries have long been lending out more than just books. “We lend out snowshoes, puzzles and games and a sewing machine,” Pray said. “We also have a portable CD player so people can listen to audio books, because now cars don’t have CD players. We will always be about books, but programming and other sorts of activities and things to lend have really boosted the amount of traffic at the library.”
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Sokol said safety is a top priority of the program, and many might be surprised at how well they can adapt to power tools.
“You will make some mistakes, but once you get comfortable with it you start to understand what you’re doing and you wonder why it took you so long to learn.”
The Northeastern Tool Library is currently accepting donations of tools in fair and working condition. To donate tools call (518) 834-9054 or email [email protected] with information of what you’d like to donate. We can arrange for drop-off at the Grange, or pick-up if needed.
Learn more about the project and how you can get involved by visiting northeasterntoollibrary.org.
Top photo: John Sokol, Robyn Pray and Charles “Skip” Smithson in the Northeastern Tool Lending Library. Photo by Tim Rowland
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