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Library locations narrowed to three
By Carey King
Going around the table one by one, each member of the Library Task Force named the same three sites last week as they discussed top picks for the location of a new county library.
Narrowing their selections down from six previously-considered properties, task force members chose Mark Watson Park, an area on Grindstaff Cove near the Jackson Plaza Shopping Center, and land near Bicentennial Park as the places they’d most like the library to be.
Rejecting two of three remaining sites as too small – the current Main Street library and a lot on Railroad Avenue owned by Sylva Herald Publisher Jim Gray – the group also eliminated Courthouse hill because of a request from the county’s Courthouse Restoration Committee, which wants to preserve the area as a museum.
The top choices will be sent to Sylva architect Odell Thompson for evaluation according to task-force generated criteria.
The group wants details on the amount of usable space available at each property and the preparation and infrastructure needed to ready each site. They’re directing Thompson to consider each property’s location in terms of public visibility, parking, traffic circulation, proximity to noise, and expandability.
“We could probably look at 20,000 (square feet) with expansion capabilities down the road,” said Jackson County Commissioners’ Chairman Stacy Buchanan.“That’s three times what we’ve got now.”
Task force members questioned a recent space-needs study update by library consultant Phil Barton that said the new library will need between 25,000 to 30,000 square feet of space in order to meet patrons’ needs for the next two decades.
County Manager Ken Westmoreland said he wanted to know whether Barton had taken the Cashiers library into consideration, saying that library services a number of people in the southern portion of the county. In addition, a number of residents use libraries at Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College, and that fact may have not been reflected in the report, Buchanan said.
While Thompson evaluates the sites, task force members plan to approach the owners of the properties to discuss prices.
“If the price is out of reach, (a site) would probably eliminate itself,” Sylva town board member Maurice Moody told the group.
While the Grindstaff Cove site is currently owned by the Alice Grindstaff family and the property near Bicentennial Park is owned by members of the Mack Hooper family, the county already owns Mark Watson Park, so price estimates are already at hand, Buchanan said.
The task force plans to meet next at the end of June or in early July, once Thompson has completed his work.
“Be thinking about the people that would really be able to add something when they get into the mechanics of (library planning),” Jackson County Commissioner and task force Chairman Joe Cowan told the group.
While the task force is charged with site selection for the new library, the county Board of Commissioners decided in January that an additional committee would be formed to determine specifics about the library building. At that time, Buchanan indicated that the committee would include representatives from the Fontana Regional Library system, Friends of the Library and Build Our Library Downtown.
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