The Bowman Regional Public Library is creating a Green Space outside the Library to provide programming and resources for youth and other library users to interact with nature, while improving the Library building’s safety and functionality.
The project will transform a gravel-covered drainage ditch behind the Library’s building into the Library’s backyard Green Space, where children can experience nature-themed story times, STEAM activities, pollinator and outdoor reading gardens, and library users will find a safe and welcoming place to interact with their community.
The Green Space isn’t simply a garden; it’s a multisensory learning environment with planted spaces, an arched gazebo for musical performances and community events, nooks for quiet reading, and spaces designed for users of a variety of ages to interact with one another and library resources. It uses an underutilized, and unattractive space, and transforms it to a welcoming, playful, and useful area that expands Library services beyond their four walls and allows the Library to offer a wider variety of programs and services to the people of our region, and those traveling from Mount Rushmore to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library.
The project also solves several long-standing problems: the poor drainage of the Library’s parking and poor lighting of the Library’s exterior. During a rain event, the library’s parking lot fills with water due, in part, to the passive overland drainage from neighboring buildings and parking lots. The Library building has residential grade gutters, not nearly adequate for its 6,200 square foot footprint. In the winter, the poor drainage creates a Library parking lot that ices up. This inhibits the elderly and those with small children from using the Library during winter months. The back of the building is illuminated by a single light, leftover from the days when the building housed the Red Owl Grocery Store.
The Green Space will be a successful public outdoor space for our area, not only providing a pleasing environment to relax and connect, but also to serve a variety of functions. It will create a social, comfortable, and accessible space right off our city’s Main street that will serve to support community members whether they are accessing library resources, meeting over coffee, shopping, or using city services. It will be welcoming to visitors, and it will expand the abilities of the Bowman Regional Public Library to serve our community, partner with other community organizations, and create a stronger sense of community. The Green Space will be a place our region can be proud of.
The Bowman Regional Public Library is accepting donations to help fund this project. The Bowman Public Library Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and accepts tax-deductible donations to benefit the library.
All gifts make a difference. All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
If you’d like to mail a check, please send it to:
Bowman Public Library Foundation
PO Box 179
Bowman, ND 58623
