BPL President Amy Ryan Thanks FOSEL for Funds Raised to Pay for the Installation of a Handicapped-Accessible Door at the South End branch

FOSEL president Glyn Polson and Mayor Thomas Menino

The Friends of the South End Library (FOSEL) received a letter of thanks from the president of the BPL, Amy Ryan,  thanking the organization for its  check to pay for a handicapped-accessible door at the South End branch. Glyn Polson, the president of FOSEL, applied for a grant to pay for the door from Pru-PAC last and received a check a few weeks ago. PruPAC is a fund established by developers 25 years ago to benefit neighborhoods around the Prudential Center. The Prudential Project Advisory Committee, a city-formed group composed of neighborhood residents and business representatives, had awarded the grant earlier this year. . The Friends of the South End Library was among a dozen of downtown non-profits that collected a total of more than $210,000 from the PruPAC  fund recently.Once installed, the library will be one of a handful of BPL branches that is fully handicapped accessible. An elevator to the second-floor community room was added to the building in previous years. Polson is working closely with the BPL’s Facilities Department to complete the project as quickly as possible.

According to Christine Schonhart, director of branch libraries at the BPL,  electricians will meet with the contractor at the branch next week to review the door and set a schedule. "While we won’t have to close the branch to install the switch, there might be some disruption to the entrance for people to move around the workers," she wrote. Further details will be posted as soon as they come over the wire...