The LaGrange Memorial Library will stay at its short-term site right until at minimum 2022 as the Troup-Harris Regional Library makes an attempt to close a $2 million shortfall in its design fund.
This purpose for this delay lies in the soaring cost of building supplies, which have “skyrocketed,” mentioned Troup-Harris Regional Library Technique Director Keith Schuermann.
“We’re also making an attempt to help save as much funds as doable,” Schuermann explained. “We’re earning an work to shut that hole, and we want to get started out [on construction] later on this summer months or early in the slide.”
The prepare for the time remaining is to reopen at the 115 Alford Avenue area one particular calendar calendar year after construction commences, Schuermann mentioned.
The LaGrange Memorial Library relocated its companies to the Unity Elementary Faculty on 525 Park Avenue in January and planned to continue to be for at least 14 months when the library underwent a approximately $7 million renovation undertaking.
Troup County and the Metropolis of LaGrange equally contributed $1 million each and every to the renovations.
The library also obtained a $2 million capital grant from the condition of Georgia and $2 million from the Callaway Foundation.
The unique arrangement states that the library will pay a month to month payment of $3,500 to the Troup County Faculty Procedure for maintenance expenses at Unity Elementary Faculty, as perfectly as for utilities prorated for the section of the developing in use.
In accordance to a preceding press launch from the Troup-Harris Regional Library, the library has not been renovated since 1994, and will be the eighth version of a library to give services to the LaGrange. The LaGrange Woman’s Club opened and operated the city’s 1st general public library in the Queenie Listened to Household in 1921.
The renovated library will feature a devoted teen room, a maker place, a no sounds home, two computer labs, a pocket park, a kitchen, a new children’s region, a big conference area and a wide variety of new layouts to modernize the library’s inside.
The LaGrange Memorial Library moreover declared Monday it would now open up on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The conclusion arrived because of to an “increased desire publish-COVID,” Schuermann reported, toppled with the routines held at the library through the summertime months.
“We enjoy the support of the community and their persistence as we navigate these economic waters,” Schuermann mentioned.