EDITORIAL: Towns to finally get the libraries they deserve

Florence County has taken commendable action in its recent efforts that will bring new library facilities to Olanta, Johnsonville and Timmonsville.

County council has voted this month to approve bids for construction of new libraries in the three towns, which will bring all six of the county’s libraries into the modern age.

These towns’ public library buildings were adequate for a while, but have grown cramped as their collections expand and the number of their patrons increases.

In fact, their current facilities never were intended to serve as libraries. For example, Olanta’s library is in a former public health clinic, while Johnsonville’s is in a renovated house.

Originally, it looked like Olanta and Timmonsville would go first while Johnsonville was going to have to wait.

But after FBi Construction of Florence submitted a bid of $2.1 million to build both Olanta’s and Timmonsville’s libraries, county officials were happy with the price and asked the company to extend its bid to include the Johnsonville library, Florence County Administrator Richard Starks said.

The company also should be lauded for agreeing to build the Johnsonville library at $1.05 million, the same cost as the others.

The highest bid for the Olanta and Timmonsville libraries on their own came in at $3.8 million. It’s obviously a tight market, as Starks described it, but taxpayers are seeing the benefit of healthy competition in this case.

In addition, the construction of these libraries offers some solid work to a Florence County company, and we all want to see our local businesses survive through times like these.

The money for the libraries has been allocated from county library construction funds as well as grants from the state, the Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation, and Honda of South Carolina Manufacturing Inc.

The new Olanta, Johnsonville and Timmonsville libraries will offer high-speed Internet, meeting rooms and other resources that will help job seekers and their communities during the economic downturn, Florence County Library System Director Ray McBride said earlier this month.

The next challenge, however, is for the new libraries to continue to expand their collections despite a decrease in state aid. The Florence County Library System has suffered cuts of $84,000 from its $283,000 in state aid during the past six months.

The S.C. State Library also has projected Florence County’s state aid to drop to $168,000 in July, McBride said recently.

This is troubling because as economic times grow tougher, more people turn to libraries for the free resources they provide. We hope the state is judicious in its cuts because state aid funds not only the purchases of books, CDs and DVDs but also publications and databases that could help people visiting the library during their job searches.

The library system, however, has found sources to help compensate for the decreased state aid.

McBride said the libraries have compensated for about $37,000 of the cuts through donations as well as grants from the Mary AC Ingram Charitable Lead Unitrust. The libraries received an additional $5,000 from the trust this month.