Library fund drive needs your help

The city of Commerce, board of commissioners, Dr. Neelagaru, Harmony Grove Foundation and numerous local individuals and businesses have surprised us all by heeding the call in helping us raise donations and commitments. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Now, the task is out of our hands as we have formally requested our State Senator, Ralph Hudgens, and State Representative, Tommy Benton, to pursue our request. We have requested that during the current legislative session, our library be chosen to receive a state grant for library expansion. We qualify for this funding in every respect, having established a building fund, created a building program, obtained title to the land on which we will expand, and raised more than half a million dollars in local funding.

I just want to remind you of all the great things that make our library special. The library serves patrons from six counties. It partners with the local Boys & Girls Club to offer important after-school programming, serves as the genealogy center for our three-county regional system, houses the holdings of the Jackson County Historical Society and provides assembly space for approximately 135 meetings of local civic and service groups, drawing a total of more than 5,000 people per year. Our children’s program attendance topped 4,700 in 2007 and numbers are being gathered for our 2008 programs.

We are proud of the progress we have made, but it is time to move forward and begin the actual construction. You can help us by e-mailing Senator Hudgens and Representative Benton. Determine an area of the library from one of the aforementioned categories and e-mail them about how much the library means to you and our community.

Through various meetings, Susan Harper and I have learned that the process is now up to our representatives to make the request for the funding. The more people they hear from, the more likely they are to move forward. We have received news from the Governor’s Office that our library will more than likely be slated to receive the grant for the Fiscal Year 2011, so it is important that we let them know our request is for now, not 2011.

The e-mail addresses are as follows: Senator Ralph Hudgens - ralph.hudgens@senate.ga.gov and Rep. Tommy Benton - tommy.benton@house.ga.gov.

Please take time to e-mail them and remind them of the importance of our library expansion. Yes, we know the state budget is being cut. But we also know from news reports that the governor wants to fund the construction of schools and libraries as these new construction projects will help local economies by providing jobs. It’s a win-win for all, don’t you think?

Tricia Massey is a stay-at-home mom, a member of the Commerce Downtown Development Authority and, yes, chair of the Commerce Library’s capital campaign.

For all of the editorials and columns, see the Jan. 21 edition of The Commerce News.