Library room to get update

After almost a year on the shelf, a scheduled update for one of the rooms at the Ector County Public Library is set to soon get started.

After Ector County Commissioners received almost $25,000 in total donations from the family of the late philanthropist Louis Rochester, the Rotary Room will soon be getting new carpet, new furniture and a display case for the rotary regalia already in the room. Minor construction is also scheduled to knock out the wall that separates the Rotary room and the Teacher’s room next to it and replace the wall with an accordion divider, giving those who use the room an option to make the room bigger if needed.

Renting out the Rotary room costs $7.50 and the Teacher’s room is $5. Library Director Rebecca Taylor said prices of the rooms once the divider is in place will remain the same, but she was not sure how much it would cost to rent out the rooms together.

At Monday’s meeting, commissioners accepted an $18,817.01 donation from the Rochester family towards to project. In 2011, the family also donated $6,000.

Used by the community as a meeting room and by library staff during meetings, Taylor said the room located on the third floor — which houses Rotarian memorabilia — has not had any upgrades to it since its initial construction back in 1981.

“It’s a God send,” Taylor said of the upgrades. “We use that whole area more … because it’s next to the children areas.”

The total budget for the library for the 2011 fiscal year was $1,537,891, and Taylor said she could not find enough money with what she was given to remodel the room herself. However, Taylor said she was able to find a little bit of extra money within her permitted budget to get new carpets for the first-floor computer lab.

Last week, Ector County commissioners approved an item to award new carpeting for the library, but not for the entire building.

“The carpet is for the first floor,” Taylor said.

The idea for remodeling the room was spearheaded by Rochester’s daughter Joy Rochester, who approached the commissioners’ court in 2011 to seek permission to donate money in her father’s honor for the project. Louis Rochester — a former Rotarian with the Odessa Rotary Club and founder of the Odessa Industrial Development Corporation, known today as Grow Odessa — died in 2010 on his 92nd birthday.

Joy Rochester’s said the reasoning behind wanting to remodel the room was simple.

“Other than his family and his friends, rotary was the most important thing to my father,” she said of her father, who she said had 63 years of perfect attendance with the club.

One of the first things Rochester said she did was approach all three rotary groups in Odessa and asked for permission to update the room, an idea she said all three groups were receptive to.

Incoming President for the Odessa Rotary Club John Willis said he was excited about the idea and hoped the renovation of the room helped educate people more on what the rotary clubs do.

“That’s the beauty of having a public place like,” Willis said. “To tell rotary’s service to humanity, both locally and worldwide.”

Joy Rochester then approached the commissioners’ court in last year in February where the court initially tabled the project before finally approving it in March.

Assistant Director for Ector County Building Maintenance Charles Pierce said work on the room is scheduled sometime within the next 30 to 45 days and the arrival of the room divider will be the deciding factor in how long the project takes.

“It’ll take two to three weeks on a room that size,” Pierce said.

The reason for the year delay, Joy Rochester said, was because she and the county had to work through and make sure everything could be done within the budget of the donations.

Once completed, the new room will also house several rotary items that Louis Rochester collected during his lifetime. The name of the room is scheduled to stay the same; however, Taylor said the library would place a wall plaque to honor Louis Rochester.

In October, the rotary clubs of Odessa also awarded Louis Rochester a plaque on their Rotary Walk of Fame at Memorial Garden Parks for his work with the Permian Playhouse, the Odessa Symphony and Chorale and the Odessa Chuck Wagon Gang. Rochester is also credited by the Texas Mini-Storage Association was one of the pioneers to build small warehouses throughout Texas and the rest of the country.

Joy Rochester said if her father were alive today, he would not want the recognition or his name on things because he liked to do things anonymously. If anything people take from the room, Rochester said she hopes people to understand what the rotary clubs do.

“I’d want people to take away an awareness about the good that rotary does and what an excellent service club it is,” she said.

@OAgovernment