Dougherty Library Board prepares proposal for Northwest renovations

ALBANY — Dougherty County Library System Director Pauline Abidde gave members of the county’s Library Board a first look at the proposal she and staff have prepared in an effort to secure $2 million in state capital outlay funds for renovation of 11,000 square feet of unimproved space at the Northwest Library branch.

Abidde distributed copies of the 10-page proposal to board members at their monthly meeting Monday evening.

“I certainly hope this is our year to get the funding,” Abidde said of the request that’s been pending at the state level for the past several years. “We’re currently the No. 3 project on the state outlay list, but by no means does that mean we’re assured of getting the money. We were No. 2 or 3 on the list last year and didn’t get it.”

The proposal notes that the Northwest Library branch, which has attracted more than 40,000 patrons who’ve used almost 85,000 library resources during the current fiscal year, has far outgrown its 16,000 square feet of current utilized space. Some of the improvements in the system’s proposal are a multipurpose meeting/conference room with a kitchen area; a room to host children’s programs and activities; additional study rooms; an expanded, all-in-one, genealogy department; and an expanded computer lab.

“(State) Reps. (Winfred) Dukes and (Ed) Rynders have both said it’s important to show potential for outside income (in seeking outlay funds),” Library Board Chairman Walter Kelley said. “This plan allows many possibilities. I think we have a beautiful plan, but if it’s not our year we’ll be back again next year.”

Also during Monday’s board meeting, Abidde gave an update on preparations for the scheduled reopening of the Southside branch. Noting that the year-to-date $37,000 budget on the project is currently $34,139 under budget, Abidde pointed out that most of the funding used in the renovation of the Southside branch has thus far been SPLOST funding.

“The wallpaper had to be back-ordered, but that’s the only work left to be done on the building,” the library director said. “The furniture has been ordered, we have a lot of IT equipment already in-house, and we’ll have WG&L (the Albany Utility Board) run fiber soon.”

Abidde said Southside hours of operation will mirror those of Westtown: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, 3-6 p.m. on Thursdays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays.

In her monthly financial report to the board, Abidde noted that the Library System is operating $151,448 under budget. But she warned that there were still unfilled positions in the system that would needed to be filled by the time Southside opens at the first of the year.

Going over year-to-date statistics systemwide, Abidde noted an overall 7.24 percent increase in materials usage; a 36.04 percent increase in computer usage; increases of 282.09 and 136.36 percent in genealogy materials and patrons, respectively; 335.48 and 113.47 percent attendance increases at adult and children’s programs, respectively; and a 24.16 percent uptick in the number of patrons served.

Commenting on the 52.01 percent increase in patron usage of the Westtown branch, board member James Hill said, “We really need to let the (County Commission) know about this one.”