Time to check-in with library support

By Jeff Poole
Review Managing Editor
Published: July 3, 2008

$300,000 in three months.
This week, the Orange County Board of Supervisors announced it was moving forward with plans to construct the new Gordonsville Library.
Years ago, the board acquired the former St. Mark’s Catholic Church property in a land-swap and designated it the future home of the Gordonsville Library. A very tired looking sign still stands in front of the church hoping one day it can live up to its promise.
For 10 years, the upstart branch has operated out of the former town hall building on Main Street. While participation and programs grew, the facility, unfortunately, could not.
It was clear a new library would be needed. The county had land. It seemed to make perfect sense, right? Not so fast.
Moving the library a couple blocks up Main Street has been no easy task. There have been nearly half a dozen different designs. At one point, there was the discussion that the library may move from downtown to a site proffered by the Annadale active adult community. Then, there was the talk of tearing down the old church building in favor of a more cost-effective modern facility. That spurred discussions about architecture and preservation and led to another round of design modifications.
Funding was finally allocated a couple years ago which meant the project finally had some muscle. All we had to do was figure out where it would be and what it would look like.
All that seems to be worked out now.
The county has agreed to preserve the historic sanctuary of the former Catholic Church–honoring the requests of Gordonsville citizens interested in preserving their downtown historic district (and not interested in tearing down another historic site.) Additionally, the county has tried to work with citizens and supporters to develop a facility that blends in with the town’s architecture. Lastly, the county purchased additional land adjacent to the corner lot on Main and Baker streets to provide more parking places for the library and a drive-up book drop-off.
The last sticking point in this project is how big the library will be. And that’s where the $300,000 in three months comes in.
The board has committed to building a library at least 5,100 square feet. It’s got the money to do that. However, it has challenged the community to raise an additional $300,000 by the end of September. If the community does, the board will bid the project out at 6,167 square feet. For reference, the size difference is more than the space available at the current Gordonsville Library.
That’s a significant sum of money and it’s not much time. We appreciate that the county has worked with the town’s library supporters on these other issues. We hope they continue to work with the town on this one as well.
If the community makes a good-faith effort and comes up just short, we’d like to think the county would recognize the effort and consent to move forward with the larger project. The money raised to that point could buy more time for more fundraising.
Hopefully, this isn’t a hard deadline but a benchmark. If it’s clear there isn’t support and the $300,000 figure is still far in the distance by the Sept. 30 deadline, then let’s move forward with the smaller one. But if we’re at $200,000 and still making progress, we’d like to think that could buy us at least until the end of the year.
Either way, we’re excited the project is moving forward. Now, it’s up to us to give it a good push.