A1c is better screening test for diabetes

County earmarks $20,000 for library expansion

Funds will go toward meeting project’s $ 180,000 price tag

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Crittenden County has agreed to give the library $20,000 to help build an addition to the main Woolfolk Library branch in Marion.

The library is looking to build a 20-by-50-foot room on the east side of the building which will give them more work space.

The addition will cost about $180,000. The library has received a $90,000 grant from the Assisi Foundation of Memphis but will need to raise the rest of the money.

“They’re trying to raise their portion and are asking us for $20,000 of it,” said Justice Vickie Robertson.

County Librarian Debbe Davenport said the library continues to grow and they are out of space.

Right now the staff is using a meeting room to process all of the books that come in and are sent to the county’s seven library branches.

“Every time a book is ordered or processed and catalogued and every step so that it can be ready to send to our branches, it comes through us first,” Davenport said. “This work space will allow us room to work and will give us back out meeting room, which was also funded by the Assisi Foundation grant.” Roz O’Neal, who serves on the library’s board of directors, said they get about 400 books a week and are bursting at the seams.

“Every one of those has to be gone through and checked before they are put in circulation,” O’Neal said. “That’s why we can keep adding to the catalogues for all the libraries.

But that stuff still has to be put somewhere.”

The Woolfolk Library has approximately 42,000 items in circulation. About 3,500 people visit the library each month. An additional 1,300 people a month use the library’s computers.

O’Neal said the new addition is pretty basic — just a concrete slap with sheet rock walls. The room will also have two 8 feet by 10 feet closets for storage.

“It’s nothing grandiose,” O’Neal said. “It’s a big, wide open work space.”

Davenport said they have already raised $6,000 toward the match and expect to receive another $40,000 to $50,000 from Marion.

“We feel comfortable that we can come up with the rest,” Davenport said.

The Quorum Court, which met in a special meeting Tuesday, approved an appropriation ordinance amendment for $20,000 which will come out of county general fund instead of the public service fund, which only has $30,000 in it.

By Mark Randall