City Council votes for library on Highway 41

Florence County Councilman Ken Ard, who represents Distict 2, which includes Johnsonville, met with the Johnsonville City Council at their regular June 3 meeting.

Councilman Ard said he came to this meeting to tell Mayor Steve Dukes and council members the county is almost ready to start the new branch library for the city of Johnsonville.

Also attending this meeting was a large representation of local citizens. Some folks wanting the library built on property on Highway 41 South across from the high school, while others wanted it built on property downtown.

Members of the council voted to build the proposed library on Highway 41.

Councilwoman Diane Marsh fought to place the facility downtown.

Dukes cast the one dissenting vote. He asked for one more chance to convince the people to agree to the downtown site by having members of the Urban Land Institute come for a public night meeting when more people would be able to attend. They agreed to Duke’s invitation to come back when they were here earlier in the spring. Time, however, had not worked on the side of setting up the meeting.

Attorney and Real Estate Developer, president of the Urban Land Institute, was sure of the benefits to come to the community from locating the facility downtown that he pledged $5,000 of personal funds to the cost. He also pledged $1,000 to restoration of the old downtown water tank.

Dukes asked those in the audience how many want the library on Highway 41. About 95 percent of those present responded. He then asked how many had attended the meetings to do with revitalizing the downtown area. The number decreased dramatically.

Dukes said, “This building will be the last major thing the city will do in another decade. It will not bring income to the city, but would be the most outstanding thing for this city. The location of this building is an important matter. Look at Lake City, for instance. They didn’t go out on Highway 52 to find a site for their library … they built downtown. If you’ve been through Lake City recently, you must have noticed other things they are doing in and around the central block area of the City.

He asked, “What do we have to lose by waiting? We’re on the bottom of the list as it is. This (Highway 41) is the easiest thing to do, but is the easiest always best? If we don’t get the library downtown, it won’t stop revitalization.”

Mayor Dukes said, “This is not what I want, but I will support it 100 percent.”

After the matter of the library was settled, the regular council meeting was reopened.

Peter Knoller, representing Florence County, presented the Housing Element for the County to the council at their. This has to do mainly with statistics for the County in identifying the percentages of various areas of population, the number of dwellings in the County and the medium income. It is a requirement mandated by the State, according to Knoller. It was approved unanimously by the Council.

The discussion of recreation came up again. Councilman William Kelly wants the pool torn up and the pool house torn down right away. He sees no reason for it to remain as is, while some prefer to wait until they know what is going there.

Recreation Committee Chairman Brad Richardson, announced a meeting of that committee for the last week in June.

Edie Cain, a local resident who often attends council meetings, said, “With so much passion being put in trees and other inanimate “things,” why can’t that kind of passion be directed to our kids? These other things may not be here in ten years, but our kids will.”

Cain made reference to a type of playground equipment she had discovered at Big Lots that could be purchased inexpensively for the young children. She said it would not be a big loss to the city to discard them at the end of the season or when other equipment is obtained. The council took this for advisement.