Library could land state dollars next year

“This would be essentially, a new library,” Madison County Library manager Suzi DeGrasse said. “It wouldn’t be just adding on a room like we did in ‘94.”

The library will find out in 2010 if it receives state funding. Madison County is currently 16th on the state’s capital request project list, according to DeGrasse.

If the library landed the money, the current structure would be assimilated into the new building. The money would also furnish materials for the new-look facility.

The state’s portion would be $1,517,000. Since this is a matching grant, the Madison County Board of Commissioners have tagged $750,000 of SPLOST for the library, but commission chairman Anthony Dove told the BOC in early February that sales tax collections are down and that it must consider a course of action should the state provide funding for the library in 2010.

DeGrasse said the value in this partially-SPLOST funded project is that it’s something that would benefit the entire county.

“Unlike a road project — not every single person drives on a road — but with the library, every single person can use the library,” she said.

DeGrasse said the library needs more space to meet the demands of the county’s population.

It is currently operating below the recommended square footage needed per capita.

That’s why the Madison County Library ranks no. 16 on the project list.

“So we are being held back in our ability to meet everybody’s needs,” DeGrasse said. “Although we love what we can do, we could do so much more.”

DeGrasse, again, stressed the value of a project that will affect all of the county’s 28,000 citizens.

“The neatest thing about this, as opposed to other SPLOST things, is that if even if it goes to a school, not everybody has kids that go to the school,” she said. “This is for every single person in the county.”