WINDSOR TERRACE — Move over bookworms and make way for the butterflies and birds.
The Windsor Terrace library will be closed until mid-April while the building gets a new $250,000 roof covered with greenery to attract birds and other pollinators, library officials said.
The library, at 160 E. Fifth Street, was closed as of Monday and is expected to reopen April 10. A bookmobile will visit the branch Wednesdays and Fridays until it's up and running again.
The new roof will be planted with "shrubs, perennial groundcovers, and ornamental grasses like sedum, witchhazel, butterfly weed, and carolina rose," library officials said. The plant-laden roof will make the building more energy efficient by keeping it cooler and will also absorb stormwater — which reduces water pollution.
The library is getting the green roof thanks to $250,000 in funding from City Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting program. The citizen-led budgeting initiative lets locals choose how to spend Lander's discretionary funds on neighborhood upgrades.
The library's green roof project won 931 votes back in 2014.
The green roof is one of several library related projects that have been funded through participatory budgeting. The program has also paid for new computers at the Windsor Terrace branch and it will help fund the installation of a statue of the children's book character Knuffle Bunny at the Park Slope branch.
While the Windsor Terrace branch is closed, nearby branches open for use include Cortelyou Library (1305 Cortelyou Road), Flatbush Library (22 Linden Blvd.) and Kensington Library, (4207 18th Ave.).
