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Feb. 14--Like Mike Mulligan's spunky steam shovel in the classic children's tale, Gertie the Waukegan bookmobile has one last shot at avoiding the scrap heap.
Waukegan library officials decided that after 50,000 miles and more than 40 years, Gertie should be retired. But officials--taking a cue from Mulligan, who couldn't discard his beloved though obsolete Mary Anne--see life after retirement for Gertie.
They tried to interest the Smithsonian in taking Gertie, a 1962 Gerstenslager that looks like a cross between a bus and milk truck and is thought to be one of the nation's oldest bookmobiles.
"They very gently declined," said Elizabeth Stearns, a spokeswoman for the Waukegan Public Library.
Then came a new idea, with a heroic twist: sending Gertie to Jefferson Parish, La., to serve readers in an area where Hurricane Katrina damaged 16 libraries.
But the problem is getting her there. She's in no shape to make it to the Gulf Coast on her own.
Last week, after a rail carrier dropped out because of insurance concerns, the City of Waukegan and a local trucking company said they could possibly help Gertie make the 1,000-mile trip to the Big Easy as soon as this week.
It would be a happy ending for Gertie, which was retired from the library's fleet of two newer bookmobiles several months ago and has been parked in a garage ever since.
Library officials toyed with selling the 31-foot bookmobile on eBay. A fixture at schools and in neighborhoods, Gertie had been lovingly maintained, like Mulligan's Mary Anne in the book by Virginia Lee Burton. Library staff replaced rusty panels with new ones and the cream-colored exterior was washed regularly.
The disaster in New Orleans gives Gertie a new purpose in life. Hurricane Katrina destroyed nearly a quarter-million items in Jefferson Parish libraries.
The project is part of a larger relief effort organized by the Wheeling-based North Suburban Library System and the American Library Association that includes donations from libraries in Lake Forest, Lincolnshire, Gurnee and Wilmette.
As at libraries nationwide, Waukegan's heard the pleas of counterparts down south and pitched in to help.
"I continually hear people say that having libraries open is part of their need for normalcy," said Lon Dickerson, director of the Jefferson Parish Library System. "We greatly appreciate all of the support we have received and continue to receive [because] it makes the light at the end of the tunnel that much brighter."
The Gail Borden Library Foundation, the charitable arm of the Gail Borden Library District in Elgin, met Thursday and decided to donate $3,000 to the Gertie project. Waukegan also received donations from community members totaling $750.
The city is considering trucking Gertie to Louisiana for free, said Mayor Richard Hyde. Two public works employees have volunteered to take Gertie on a flatbed truck, he said.
This week, they plan to put Gertie on the flatbed and see how tall she is. If she's too tall to fit under highway underpasses, the trip may be jeopardized, the mayor said, although the drivers might be able to take back roads.
And if the city effort fails, a local firm, Nelson Shipping, said it could transport Gertie for $2,300, Stearns said.
"She's ready to go as soon as we arrange the transportation," Stearns said, noting it would take only an hour or two to load boxes of books.
Gertie's collection would add to the thousands of books and monetary donations already collected through the library system relief effort, involving an estimated 650 academic, public, school and special library districts throughout suburban Cook, Lake, Kane and McHenry Counties.
Gertie's 8-foot-wide, 10-foot-high carriage weighs about 17,000 pounds.
Before last week's offers, library officials said they would hold a fundraiser, if necessary, to get Gertie to Louisiana.
Sounding a lot like Mike Mulligan, Joseph Kalinowski, Gertie's driver for 25 years, was certain that the bookmobile would get a new lease on life.
"I don't think she's fit for the junkyard," he said.
skuczka@tribune.com
Tribune staff reporter M. Daniel Gibbard contributed to this report
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