By Michael V. Hannigan/HCN
The Athens City Council approved the budget and direction for the Cain Center rehabilitation project last Friday, but also set aside 30 days to explore a brand new idea for the center.
Councilwoman Toni Garrard Clay said, “This is going to be something out of the blue for a lot of people.”
She then went on to “float the idea … of the top floor of the Cain Center becoming a modern, vibrant library.”
Clay chairs the Henderson County Library Advisory Board and said the Public Library Fund (a fundraising arm for the library) has been exploring a new home for the Henderson County Clint W. Murchison Memorial Library.
Several officials said the current location on South Prairieville Street is too small and ill-suited for a contemporary library.
“I read every night and I love our library, but shelves of books, that’s not the future,” Clay said. “We still need some shelves of books, but the future is more a community living room where people will have a place to go and be on their computer or having meetings, or whatever.”
“Imagine the Cain Center becoming a place where it is truly a hub of community activity,” she said.
The idea drew interest from the council and some officials said the library on the top floor could be a boon to the Cain Center.
“Getting people out (to the Cain Center) is the only way to keep this thing potentially to where it loses as little money as it can lose,” said Councilman Ed McCain. “Foot traffic, foot traffic, foot traffic.”
McCain went on to say he believes the library would help with that effort.
But there are obstacles, not the least of which being the library is a county government entity. Having both the City and the County running services out of the same building could be complicated.
There are also three separate boards connected with the library, all of which would have to get on board.
But Clay thinks the idea is worth at least exploring.
Clay wrote on Facebook, “There are only a few moments in the timeline of a city when there is an opportunity to do something really bold and innovative. Yes, it may be too late, but I want to at least explore the idea of having the Cain Center be a community facility that has a recreational area downstairs (which includes the new pool design) and upstairs has an open-concept library. I’m talking about a 21st-century library with glass-walled meeting rooms, modular spaces that can be reconfigured, comfortable furniture, computer stations and light. Imagine what that would be like and how many people it would bring to the building. Are there obstacles to that concept? Absolutely. But just think about what it might look like and how it might serve the city and county.”
The post Councilwoman floats idea for library at the Cain Center appeared first on Henderson County Now.