The original Calhoun-Gordon County Library before the transformation. The log cabin was originally the Woman’s Club.
A 1980’s picture of the Calhoun-Gordon County Library after its renovation from a log cabin.
Since 1986, the Calhoun-Gordon County Library in Calhoun, has served residents of the city and the county, and now the building will be expanded in the coming months to embrace changes in technology, as well as space.
According to Ed Weldon, Chairman of the Board of the Calhoun-Gordon Library, members of the board met with architect Raymond Clark last week to start preliminary planning for the expansion.
“This was our first meeting to really look at some spatial relationships and needs in the building as we are going to expand it on the north end where the parking lot is now, but we are also going to rehab internal materials,” said Weldon.
The cost of the library expansion will be $800,000 and will be divided equally using city and county SPLOST dollars. Additionally, the state has granted $250,000 by the state for the library expansion, according to Calhoun City Administrator Eddie Peterson.
According to Weldon, the joint effort between the city and the county on the cost comes from several factors including the ratio of Gordon County users to Calhoun City users.
“The city owns the building and the county contributes about 65 percent of operating expenses for the staffing. That works out to be about the percentage of our population between city and county, and it also works out to how our card holders work down, it’s 2:1 county to city,” said Weldon.
The city and county have employed architect Killian Clark Partnership out of Ringgold to draw up the expansion. Library board members met with architect Raymond Clark, from the firm last week, according to Weldon.
This will be only the second expansion in the history of the library and ground is expected to be broken sometime in the fall, according to Peterson.
There were more than 200,000 “trips” through the doors of the library in the last year, according to Weldon, who says the expansion is necessary because of the positive resources offered at the library for citizens.
“The library is a community asset when it comes to supporting jobs and employment aspirations. We help a lot of people fill out job applications and to do their resumes,” said Weldon.
Preliminary plans for the expansion were discussed and Clark will return again in about two weeks with updated plans, moving the process forward from there, according to Weldon.
Ridiculous. Inflated as his ego.
Hardly that many parking spots in all of Calhoun.
I think the old building is located in Redbud at C.J. Dodds place?
Don't you think that's a little steep to add on to a builing. You could probably build a new library for that amount.
Spending $1 million plus tax dollars demands anti incumbent backlash.
This is a comedy routine where Ed Weldon plays himself as the North end of a South bound mule.