Camden County tool library to open Thursday

GLOUCESTER TWP. - Freeholder Michelle Gentek-Mayer was dressed for the occasion: boots, casual pants and Sustainable Camden County T-shirt.

She joined other officials Monday for a tour of the newly renovated Regan Building, shuttered since the 1990s. The brick building at the county’s eight-acre Environmental Park in the Blackwood section of Gloucester Township has been given new life as a center for sustainability programs, including a first-in-the-state tool lending library opening Thursday.

“I wanted to show that when you’re here, you’re getting in the dirt,” Gentek-Mayer said, jokingly apologizing for her attire before offering the tour of the building and its grounds, with greenhouses, children’s play areas, a sensory garden and more.

The century-old Regan Building, part of the Lakeland complex, was used as a psychiatric facility through the 1970s, a civil defense office in the ‘80s and a youth detention center in the ‘90s, according to county officials, who also noted that materials used to renovate the building, from flooring tiles to paint, were either taken from surplus at other county facilities or donated.

“I saw this beautiful building, and it was just wasting away,” Gentek-Mayer said, pointing out the moldings, antique lighting fixtures (now outfitted with LED lighting) and other architectural and design features left from various prior tenants.

“We need to look at what we already have before we start building something new,” she added.

Gentek-Mayer and county director of sustainability Chris Waldron said the building’s greenhouses were used to plant seedlings for flowers and plants to be placed in county parks, with 10,000 plants in 2014 and 15,000 in 2015, which they said saved the county more than $10,000.

Other seedlings, in pots inside an open-air greenhouse for winter plants and perennials, included tiny sprouts that will eventually become Christmas trees — trees county residents can rent for the holiday season, then return, roots intact, to be planted.

A hydroponic greenhouse, currently under construction, eventually will be used to grow produce year-round that the county hopes to sell to local restaurants and markets, Gentek-Mayer said. A homeless veteran now living in a cottage the county offers elsewhere at the Lakeland complex will be employed as a caretaker there.

The tool library, modeled on one in West Philadelphia and approved by the freeholders in January, includes one-time-use items such as nails, nuts and bolts; screwdrivers, wrenches and yard tools, such as shovels and rakes; and power tools, including circular and band saws, drills and chainsaws.

The library, which will be open in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Sunday mornings, will have an online tracking database; membership is free to county residents.

“We’re learning as we go,” Waldron said. “(The library’s inventory) will grow as we go.”

The Regan Building also houses a small library of donated do-it-yourself books covering topics from gardening to cooking to home improvement, and a classroom where Rutgers Master Gardeners will offer instruction in sustainable practices, horticulture and other disciplines.

“Just the improvements that have been made here over the past year…,” said Becky Szkotak, an agriculture program associate with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Camden County. “It’s unbelievable.”

She pointed out the sensory garden for special needs children and those on the autism spectrum, built by a local Girl Scout with materials donated by Home Depot, as well as new pathways and the refurbished greenhouses.

The growth — of both plant life and programs — will continue, Gentek-Mayer said.

She said the county is hoping to add a butterfly garden, composting facility, native plant garden, meadow and meditation walk, sculpture garden and beehives.

Phaedra Trethan: (856) 486-2417; ptrethan@gannettnj.com