Lahaina businessman and painting contractor Tom Scott (far left) with crew members Filipe Sanchez and Kainoah Faria at the freshly painted Lahaina Public Library.

LAHAINA – Scott Brothers Pacific Inc., headed by well-known Lahaina businessman and painting contractor Tom Scott, and Ameritone Maui, locally owned paint and paint supplies dealer, have teamed up to repaint the exterior of the modernized Lahaina Public Library as backdrop for a new Hawaiian garden front lawn.

“Tom Scott keeps on giving,” according to Sara Foley, board member of the Maui Friends of the Library (MFOL).

Without being asked, the contractor felt a new coat of paint would serve as a better backdrop for the lawn and its planned three new taro patches.

Ameritone contributed 15 gallons of paint.

The landscape is still stabilizing and will be opened to the public sometime in January.

Lahaina Public Library Branch Manager Alayna Davies-Smith receives the book from author Al The Only.

Scott’s firm originally painted the library inside and out at no cost in 2012, even recruiting other painting companies to help out.

MFOL and the Lahaina Rotary Club raised funds and brought in companies to strip the library to its bare walls.

Some 20 contractors, most working at cost or less, added new flooring, new bookcases and a new circulation desk.

The project also involved hauling and storing thousands of books while work was in progress.

New Librarian Alayna Davies-Smith said, “We’re delighted with the fresh new look for our historic site that’s such an important part of Lahaina, both for residents and visitors alike.”

Foley added, “The building actually glows with the new paint.”

Lahaina Restoration Foundation is playing a key role in planning and supervising the lawn project, which has been made possible by a grant from Maui County.

MFOL supervised work on the interior renovation and has worked with the Hawaii State Public Library System on the landscape project.

In related news, 20-year Lahaina resident, magician and author Al The Only donated a copy of his book, “The Magic Graveyard,” to his hometown library.

A clown, a pickpocket and an automotive magazine editor show up in a cemetery they were dying to get there!

These are just three of the 39 magicians buried within the pages of this 400-page book with more than 270 photographs and illustrations, as well as interesting, entertaining, funny and true stories of magicians all laid to rest in one place.

Why would magicians, whose careers spanned the globe, want to spend eternity in a tiny cemetery in a small farming town in southwest Michigan?

Magician Al The Only provides the answer.

He gives a self-guided tour of Lakeside Cemetery in Colon, Michigan. Colon is known as the “Magic Capitol of the World,” and Lakeside has the most magicians interred in one place than anywhere else.

Read the stories resurrected in these pages of their colorful careers. From the year 1942 to the present, experience the histories engraved in stone. This book has lots of plots portraying their illustrious lives.

What’s Al The Only’s connection to a cemetery? Every year for the last 46 years, he has attended a magic convention, The Abbott’s Magic Get-Together, in Colon. In 2009 he was asked by the Abbott’s Magic Company to usher a tour of the famous magicians’ gravesites just outside of the town, many of whom Al knew personally.

Al’s love of the history of magic and being a storyteller from way back were a natural fit. These days, Al is considered the “Keeper of the Stories.”

This is Al The Only’s third contribution to the literary world. The first two were written for the magic industry.

“The Magic Graveyard” has stories for everyone: the history buff, magician and cemetery visitors, and students of Americana with biographies about real people and their fascinating lives.