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County, library officials meet
By Derek Hodges and Justin Goble
“The clock is ticking.”
That’s the message the Jackson County Library Board got from county commissioners Monday (Aug. 29). The warning came from Commissioner Eddie Madden after library board members said their fund-raising for a new library had not yet begun.
Library board members met with commissioners to discuss their progress and plans for a new library building. During the session, they updated county leaders on fund-raising as well as on design ideas for the site.
Library board members are working toward construction of a new library at Jackson Plaza. The county, with help from the town of Sylva, purchased approximately 1.5 acres for $210,000 on Sept. 14, 2004. The property was formerly the site of the Western Sizzlin’ Steakhouse, which burned several years ago.
Several library board members were surprised to learn during Monday’s meeting that the site had already been purchased.
“I guess I’m real surprised that y’all didn’t know we had purchased the property. I know I read that in The Sylva Herald a little bit ago,” Commissioner Roberta Crawford said.
While the committee working for the new building has not actually begun fund-raising work in earnest, Friends of the Library has raised several thousand dollars for the effort, Friends President Mary Selzer said.
Selzer is also co-chairman of the Library Board’s fund-raising committee.
“The successful formula (for raising money for a new library) seems to be that the county defines how much it is willing to commit to the project,” Selzer said.
Several library board members told commissioners that fund-raising had not begun because they did not know how much they would need to raise since the county had not given its commitment.
After the county decides how much it will invest in the new facility, the next step is to begin a “quiet campaign,” Selzer said. That will involve contacting corporations and “deep-pocketed individuals” to request donations. Following that quiet campaign, public fund-raising will begin, she said.
Vance Davidson, the fund-raising committee’s other co-chairman, has professional experience finding grants for such projects. He said knowing the local government’s level of commitment to a project is important because grantors and donors often want to know that.
“We need to be sure of this county’s financial commitment,” Davidson said. “People want to know how much you already have (for a project). They want to know if the community is committed to building the library. They want to take the risk out of their contribution.”
Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said it may be several months before officials know how much money the county will be able to promise.
“Before you can make a commitment about how much you’re going to give, you need to know how much it’s going to take,” McMahan said.
Library officials reminded McMahan that the project’s proposed budget, before any kind of blueprints or plans have been made, totals about $6 million.
“I think by the first of the next calendar year we can give you some kind of number. By then we’ll have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to be able to do,” McMahan said.
Library Board Chairman Howard Allman suggested that fund-raisers may need to bring in about $2 million to the project, a tough number to meet in this community, he said.
“We’d be hard-pressed to raise $2 million,” he said.
It would surprise me if this community and county can’t raise $2 million,” Madden said.
Sylva Architect Odell Thompson reviewed design plans for the new site.
“This building will be green in the best sense of the word,” Thompson said, presenting several concept drawings that show how the building might look. Thompson highlighted where the sun would rise and set, what the view would be from the building and even suggested that solar light and energy could be used to supply the building.
“I know a lot of people are saying, ‘That’s not downtown,’” Thompson said of the proposed Jackson Plaza site. “It will be downtown. Twenty years out we’re going to have a vibrant urban experience out there.”
Helping to create that “urban experience” will be the addition of Sylva’s new post office at the other end of the parking lot, Thompson said. He showed several drawings that placed the library at one end of the parking lot and the post office at the other. Thompson suggested filling the parking lot with small trees to create a “European plaza” effect.
“Everything lines up to the front door of the library,” Thompson said.
McMahan told Thompson that adding trees may not be possible, since the county does not actually own the parking lot. Conceding that trees, like the post office being located at the site, are only a possibility at this point, Thompson said he still has high hopes for the location. (See related story on Page 7A)
“Let’s get people excited. People will think of this as the gateway to the city,” Thompson said.
Getting a picture of what the building could look like should be the next step, Davidson said.
“People rally around a rendering,” he said.
County Manager Ken Westmoreland pointed out that the group still has around $34,000 to use in the conceptual stages of the project. That money could be used to secure a drawing of a proposed library and hire a fund-raising consultant, an idea several commissioners supported.
Some library board members were discouraged that the county wasn’t able to give the exact amount of their financial support, but McMahan assured them the county was not giving up on the project.
“It’s not a dead issue. This board is 100 percent committed to getting another library built in this area,” McMahan said.
Since work on the new site is still a few years off, maintenance is continuing on the current site. The county is currently seeking bids to repair the roof at the downtown Sylva library, Westmoreland said.
No word yet on Sylva’s post office location
By Lynn Hotaling
Sylva architect Odell Thompson may have drawn a new post office at Jackson Plaza, but that doesn’t mean it will be built there.
According to U.S. Postal Service real estate specialist Bob Rizzuto of Greensboro, no decision has been made as to the location of the new facility.
“I’ve been sidetracked with other priorities and don’t really have anything to tell,” said Rizzuto Tuesday when he was asked if a post office location had been finalized.
“He’s speculating,” Rizzuto said when told that Thompson had shown drawings of a Jackson Plaza that featured a new post office opposite a new library.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone, and I haven’t committed to anything,” Rizzuto said. “We’re looking at a site there – that’s public knowledge – but no decision has been made.”
The post office requested proposals for a new Sylva post office in May and June.
Sylva town board members have endorsed the Jackson Plaza site through a letter to the postal service. The shopping center has already been chosen as the location for the new Jackson County Public Library.
Plans for a post office at Jackson Plaza have been up in the air for more than four years.
Mayor Brenda Oliver said in January 2001 that it appeared a deal that would place a post office at the shopping center was imminent; Sylva town leaders voted at that time to accept the entrance to Jackson Plaza as a town street should a post office be built there.
A freeze on post office spending put the project on hold until this past spring.
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