Fannin County Public Library Board of Trustees Chair Gordon Ridoch provided the Mountain Regional Library System board, Wednesday, February 19, with an update and history of their involvement with the Fannin County Board of Commissioners regarding the Whitepath FabTech building.
Ridoch explained that the Board of Commissioners approached the Board of Trustees in July of last year about potentially moving the library to the Whitepath FabTech building.
In November, they met again and arranged for a tour of the building for the Board of Trustees, which was followed by a second tour for the Georgia Libraries Director of Library Planning and Construction Nathan Rall.
“After that meeting, we were awaiting a report from Nathan about the condition of the building and then in early January, State Representative David Ralston made a public announcement that Fannin County was to receive a $1.3 million grant from the state with a matching fund of $600,000 from Fannin County to develop that building (Whitepath FabTech building) as a library,” Ridoch said. “This announcement from David Ralston came as a surprise to the trustees because we were still awaiting the report from Mr. Rall.
“It raised a lot of questions about the grant and there was a concern about whether the local trustees would have a voice in the decision to move out there and did the county have the money for the matching funds.”
In January, the commissioners and their architect, Peter Sutton, had a called meeting with the trustees to discuss the building and exchange ideas.
During that meeting, the trustees explained that the library would require approximately 20,000 square feet of the building to meet state standards.
“We talked about the cost of construction and that the $1.8 million dollars in this grant was probably not going to be enough to build the building we wanted, or the library we wanted, and they talked about cost of furnishing the building and space such as that,” Ridoch said. “Nothing was decided. We are awaiting a report back from the architect about what size the county wanted, what size we were gonna get, and so that is just kind of where we are today.”
He stressed that no decisions have been made regarding the library’s use of the building. The trustees are still waiting for the architect’s design plan and to see whether the county will receive the grant funds from the state.
Mountain Regional Library System Interim Director Claudia Gibson said, “I think an important thing to remember is the legislators have to pass the budget. It’s really up to them. Nothing is a done deal until they say that they will grant the money and there are several libraries on the list. There’s no guarantee that Fannin will be included, but since David Ralston has made the announcement it seems like it would be a sure thing, but we don’t know anything until the legislature votes on it, which should be anytime.”
Gibson also explained that in order to receive the grant, the state library facilities director has to be involved in the process.
“He also has to come up and look at the building and work with the local community, commissioners and architect to make sure it is done right,” she said.