Krause oversees remodeling project
By Robert Cloud
Two weeks after taking the position as director of the Neuschafer Community Library in Fremont, Melissa Krause was overseeing a major remodeling project.
“My role thus far has been the wearer of many hats,” Krause said. “I have been director, general contractor and children’s librarian, which has certainly made this an exciting time.”
Krause became Fremont’s library director on April 21.
“While I am from Wisconsin, I spent the last nine years in North Dakota working as a journalist and a small business owner of a community art studio,” she said.
In the fall of 2020, the library was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Marilyn W. Taylor/Wohlt Creamery Fund.
Taylor, who died in February 2017, bequeathed Wohlt Creamery, the business founded by her parents, to the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Region.
The foundation set up an $8 million endowment that awards grants to organizations and projects in Fremont, New London and surrounding areas.
Natalie Snyder was the library director when the grant was announced.
The funds were used to redesign the library’s interior and purchase new furniture and flooring.
“This was a very extensive remodel,” Krause said, noting that the library was stripped to bare walls and floors.
“The contents of the library were transferred into our gymnasium so we could continue daily circulation,” she said. “(We) now have a completely new, redesigned space.”
Krause said the focus of the design was “functionality.”
“Many of the new furniture items are on wheels, so we have mobility to change up the space as needed,” Krause said. “We have new seating for children and teens.”
In addition to the foundation grant, the library received $10,000 from an anonymous donor.
That donation pays to replace the ceiling and convert the lighting to energy-efficient LED fixtures.
Krause noted that staff members Ann Stearn and Jennie Hellengreen played a major role in completing the project, while the Friends of the Library were instrumental in helping fund it.
“Really, it required so many hands to help move books, hang shelving, make adjustments to the electrical and so forth,” Krause said. “It took a village and then some to make this beautiful space happen.”