Story by Ashley Traylor, Staff writer
The Calloway County Library Board of Trustees passed a renovation project Monday to submit to the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives 2017 construction grant for a new library.
Ryan Alessi, acting president of the board, said the total estimated cost of the renovation is $6.4 million.
The Board of Trustees called a special meeting Monday so they could decide on a construction project because the deadline to apply for the grant was before the board’s scheduled meeting Wednesday.
Before the meeting, community members signed up to speak up for public comment. Six community members spoke about how they want an enhanced library that will survive the next 40 to 50 years.
The public pointed out the library has not been renovated since the 1970s and is in need of an expansion.
Wesley Bolin, Murray city council member, said if Murray State had never been built, the county would be a fraction of the size it is now. In comparison, he said without an enhanced library the future of the county will only be a fraction of what it could be.
“I’m a young man and I plan on growing old in this county,” Bolin said. “I really anticipate the day when I can stand under the new Calloway County Public Library that is worthy of a remarkable community of something large enough to grow with us and not constrain us.”
Phyllis Miller, a community member, presented the board with three pages of signatures of those who were in support of an enhanced library.
“We hope that you will seize this moment to choose to build a library that will be sufficient for the next 40 years as the existing library building has had to be,” Miller said. “Please look to the future so that maybe only 10 years — a small project will not be enough to meet a growing community.”
Calloway County Library Board of Trustees will know by early November if it will receive the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives construction grant.
The next library meeting will be at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12 and will be open to the public.