Gibsonville aldermen will resume a consideration about the future of a new town library at their meeting on Monday night.
During a July 15 discussion, mayor Lenny Williams pressed that the town needs to move forward with plans for the new library.
The town bought property for both a new library and new police station in 2022. The town bought 5.58 acres along Minneola Street, beside the town’s community center, for $250,000 in February of that year for a future site of the library.
Later, in July of 2022, the town spent $350,000 for 8.04 acres along Steele Street as the site for a future police station.
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Gibsonville’s current police station
However, Williams expressed frustration to his colleagues two weeks ago that the police station is moving along while the library is not.
Generally, aldermen described each project as costing about $10 million – the library for about 16,000 square feet, the police station for 15,000 square feet.
The current library, at 506 Church Street, has about 2,500 square feet; the current police station operates from within town hall at 129 West Main Street.
Town manager Ben Baxley told the board that the town has received $1.575 million in grants from the state toward the police station.
Extension of water lines and a street to reach the future police station site are underway, Baxley reported, and the town is preparing to begin grading for the site.
Baxley said that architectural plans had been possible for the police station because of the initial funds already received, but that there had been no design work done for the library because there were no funds available to do so.
Williams expressed frustration with Baxley’s description of a consultant’s consideration of an alternative site for the library at the former Minneola Mill site.
Williams said that various town officials had undertaken such consideration without his knowledge or involvement and he continually blamed other members of the aldermen board for end-running him by considering an alternative location.
“I don’t know why we’re looking at the old mill building.” Williams said.
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Mayor, aldermen differ on priority of new town library
The mill location was inappropriate for a library, Williams stressed several times, because children would have to cross the railroad tracks that bisect the downtown area, in order to get to the mill location.
He also said it was inappropriate to be considering the former mill building when the town had already paid out $250,000 to buy land for a future library on Minneola Street.
The mayor stressed his view that the town needed to move forward with both the police station and the library.
“Have you changed your mind [about building the library]?” Williams challenged the board several times.
Much discussion focused on the potential tax rate implications of undertaking both projects, with tax rate increases of 8 to 11 cents bandied about to fund the debt service to finance both projects. The town’s current tax rate is 49 cents per $100.
Williams and aldermen have generally expressed opposition in the past to any tax rate increase for the projects.
Williams suggested last month, for instance, that the town may need to consider “reducing the things we cannot afford” at the library, while also pointing to rapid residential growth which he said would substantially add to the town’s revenues in the coming years.
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Architectural renderings of a new Gibsonville Library, as presented to Gibsonville’s board of aldermen in 2022
Mayor pro tem Mark Shepherd, however, said it was not realistic to think that these projects would be built in the “next few years.” Shepherd agreed that “we need both buildings, but we cannot afford them right now.”
Williams used as an example how the board had come together to build the town’s community center on Minneola Street. The community center, which was built several years ago was a much smaller project, Shepherd said, noting that it had cost $2 million, while both the library and police station are projected to cost $10 million each.
Alderman Bryant Crisp told Williams that the only reason an alternative site [the mill] was being considered was because when the price tag of $10 million for a library had been presented, “people freaked out.”
“We don’t have $10 million [to build a library],” Crisp said.
Crisp said that, if the town was obligated with long-term debt service, the town would not have available money for unexpected expenses.
Crisp said that the Minneola land purchased for the library could be used for other purposes.
Crisp countered that Williams’ suggestion to trim back the library’s size or offerings would then soon be outgrown by the very growth that the mayor had pointed to.
Potentially complicating the timeframe for the library is that the school system’s lease of the library is currently scheduled to expire in 2028, pointed out alderman Irene Fanelli. Williams said that the school system would continue the lease as it had for decades previously.
“Do we need both buildings, absolutely. But we can’t afford them right now,” Shepherd said.
After about 40 minutes of conversation and at Williams’ insistence, the aldermen will resume discussion at their Monday meeting at 7:00 p.m. at town hall.
