How often do you really need, say, a posthole digger, a couple of sawhorses or a masonry drill for a project if you’re not a pro? How much space is being taken up in your garage by equipment you rarely use?
Starting Dec. 4, you can have cheap access to more than a couple thousand tools for landscaping, plumbing, construction or repairs. And when you’re done, all you have to do is schlep it back to the library. The ReSource Tool Library, that is.
The Center for ReSource Conservation in Boulder is kicking off its newest community program with a grand opening party, and we’re all invited.
Head out any time after 9 a.m. that day for an early look at the Tool Library at the ReSource Yard, at 6400 Arapahoe Rd. The party starts at 2 p.m., and there is a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 3 p.m., with live music, food and special guests until 5 p.m.
At the event, you’ll discover how an inexpensive annual membership allows access to anything in the 2,500-item inventory, from knee pads to cement mixers, for a tiny daily rental fee.
Bring a tool to donate and get a chance at a free membership from the grand opening raffle. (You must be at least 18 years old to have a membership.)
A tool library is a concept that has thrived around the country, as well as in Australia and Canada. It was the one in Berkeley, Calif., that came to Adam Jackaway’s attention when he was attending graduate school there in the ’90s on his way to becoming an architect.
Years later, while working in Australia, it occurred to him that a tool library was something he could introduce back in Boulder, where he had received a master’s in engineering in 2002. He made his proposal about a year ago.
“The Center for ReSource Conservation liked the idea; we pitched the idea to the city council and they liked it,” says Jackaway. “The CRC recruited tools from donors. We got great deals on things like shelving, counters and used tools from Sutherlands Lumber when it closed in Boulder.”
Jackaway is now ReSource Tool Library program manager, the only fulltime employee along with Operations Coordinator Cam Adibi. Adibi is working on a plan for holding an educational seminar series on how to use various tools, be they for landscaping or installing insulation.
As CRC Executive Director Keith Frausto says, “The hope is for ReSource to become the local one-stop shop for people seeking low-cost, sustainable building materials, tools and how-to information.”
The library will also work with nonprofit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the Girl Scouts of the USA.
“We’re already talking with the local Girl Scouts,” says Jackaway. “It would be great to set up workshops for the parents, particularly the dads, to work with their daughters in teaching them skills with tools.”
The facility will be open seven days a week during regular ReSource business hours, the most hours any tool library in the country is open.
For more information, visit www.conservationcenter.org/ToolLibrary.htm.
