LETTER: Help new library add safety glass to protect birds
Editor, Register-Mail: Collisions with glass claim the lives of hundreds of millions of birds each year in the United States. Birds that have flown thousands of miles on migration can die in seconds on a pane of glass. Advances in glass technology and production since the mid 20th century have made it possible to construct skyscrapers with all glass walls, homes with huge picture windows, and civic buildings, like our new Galesburg Public Library, with large expanses of glass. Glass is invisible to both birds and humans, but we learn to see glass through a combination of experience and visible cues — if it’s a clear space in a frame on a building we, unlike birds, assume it’s glass. Birds assume it’s air. As the amount of glass increases so does the incidence of bird collisions and deaths.
As most readers may remember, when the Galesburg Public Library originally offered the construction bids for the new library, the lowest bid came back at $4 million over budget which resulted in the construction committee making $4 million worth of cuts to the originally planned building. These included our planned use of bird safety glass to deter collisions. Of all those cuts we were able to hold out hope for replacing a few by including them as alternates, (which told the bidders we might add them later). The bird safety glass was one of those alternates.
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Now that we are so close to having raised the required $3.75 million to complete our part of the state library construction grant, we are hoping to raise the additional cost of collision deterring glass, especially for the two-story corner windows and the large front facing window that flanks the entrance. The costs of these are $10,000 for each of the six corner windows, and $25,000 for the large one in front. Donors will be recognized for covering any of these costs, and we welcome gifts of any size to contribute to this effort. To our eyes these windows will just look like glass, but birds will see them as impenetrable and will avoid them. If you would like to contribute to the safety glass window fund donations may be sent to the Galesburg Public Library Foundation at 40 East Simmons Street. For more information contact heather.sipes@thegplf.org. — Laurie Muelder, Galesburg
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This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: LETTER: Help new library add safety glass to protect birds
