KEYSTONE HEIGHTS – Mission of the Dirt Road recently opened a Tool Lending Library, thanks to the Volunteer Fire Department Grant and the Community Foundation Grant.

The idea came to Carey Morford, founder of Mission of the Dirt Road, when she noticed that there was a need for tools after helping individuals with home repairs.

“We’re doing home repairs and one of the things we noticed is that there are some people who would have done some home repairs or maybe done more yard maintenance if they had access to the tools,” she said. “It wasn’t that they didn’t have the skill. It was just they couldn’t access the tools.”

The library will be opened every Saturday from 9a.m. to noon and has more than 300 tools that were donated from the community. Through a computer system, individuals can return and check out tools such as pluming tools, automotive tools and hammers for a week.

“Right now there’s only hand tools. We don’t have any power tools, but we are planning to add power tools starting in March,” she said.

In addition, the library consists of a small membership fee in order to help with maintenance. However, they are offering a special where the first 23 to sign up will receive a free membership for the year.

Though Mission of the Dirt Road recently opened their Tool Lending Library, they are looking forward to expanding it. In addition, they have received positive responses from the community.

“We already have had a couple of people ask if we have particular tools that we don’t have, but we are keeping track of that,” Morford said. “We’re keeping a list of what it is that people are looking for so that when we’re ready to add that next phase of tools, we’ll have some idea of what we need to include.”