Library fund-raisers receive $200,000 USDA grant
State and federal officials joined local elected leaders, fund-raisers and library board members to celebrate the $200,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grant that helped the Jackson County library complex Capital Campaign secure the necessary funding for furniture, fixtures and equipment for the new library. Holding the $200,000 check are U.S. Senator Kay Hagan’s Western representative Freddie Harrill, Fontana Regional Library Board Chairman Kathy Proctor, USDA Rural Development Community Programs Director Bill Hobbs. With them are, from left, Sylva town Manager Adrienne Isenhower, Commisioner Joe Cowan, Sylva Mayor Maurice Moody, Fontana Board member Ethan Staats, Commissioner William Shelton, Commissioner’s Chairman Brian McMahan, Fontana Director Karen Wallace, Friends of the Library Capital Campaign Steering Committee Co-chairman Mary Selzer, Rep. Heath Shuler’s field representative Boyce Deitz, USDA Rural Development Area Director Pam Hysong, Commissioner Tom Massie, Friends of the Library President June Smith, Jackson County Library Board member Vance Davidson, Jackson County Librarian Dottie Brunette and Jackson County Library Board Chairman Howard Allman. –Herald photo by Nick Breedlove
Library fund-raisers announced today that they will be receiving a $200,000 Community Facilities Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development to be used to purchase furniture, fixtures and equipment for the new library complex currently under construction atop Courthouse Hill in downtown Sylva.
The grant requires a $1.2 million match, which Capital Campaign Steering Committee Co-chairman Mary Selzer says the group has raised.
“In May of 2008 when the capital campaign officially began, we were talking to donors about the new library complex project and, at that time, we had a little over $140,000 in the new library account,” Selzer said. “Thanks to the hard work of the volunteers working on the campaign as well as those at the Friends Book Store on Main Street in Sylva, and the generosity of many in our community and beyond, we are in the position to be able to agree to provide the $1.2 million of matching funds associated with the USDA’s $200,000 grant.”
“Raising this money for the new library complex has truly been a team and community effort,” said June Smith, President of the Friends of the Jackson County Main Library. “Without the thousands of hours volunteers have worked to make the dream of a new library come true, a new library would still be a dream and our historic courthouse would still stand deserted. The generosity of our community has turned the volunteer hours into the donations that will furnish and equip a library of which we will be extremely proud.”
The Jackson County Public Library is part of a tri-county public library system – Fontana Regional Library – that connects the six public libraries in Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties into a regional system. Uniting as a region enables the libraries to provide higher quality services and operate more effectively and efficiently. Through this system, patrons have the ability to use all of the libraries in the region and to order media items from any of the other members of the system. The regional system also provides greater opportunities to obtain grants and raise corporate and private funding for projects that benefit library services throughout the region.
Fontana Regional applied for the $200,000 USDA Rural Development grant on behalf of the new Jackson County library complex. Throughout the past nine months Fontana board members and staff have worked with Pamela Hysong of USDA Rural Development to make this grant a reality.
“It has been a pleasure working with Fontana Regional Library staff on this project,” Hysong said. “Understandably, the entire community is excited that they will soon have a beautiful, spacious new library building in Jackson County. USDA Rural Development is thrilled to participate in the project by helping to provide the new fixtures, furnishings and equipment for the building.”
“USDA Rural Development is very pleased to provide this $200,000 Community Facilities grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We commend the Fontana Regional Library, the Friends of the Jackson County Main Library, and the citizens of Jackson County for raising $1,200,000 matching funds,” said Bill Hobbs, community programs director.
Jackson County’s new library complex is a $7 million building project which is being administered by Jackson County’s commissioners and will incorporate the renovation of the 1914 Jackson County Courthouse with a 20,000-square-foot addition. It is designed to be a community resource facility and cultural center of the county. The anticipated opening date for the complex is the second quarter of 2011.
Donations to the Capital Campaign fund may be made at the Jackson County Public Library, the Friends of the Library Bookstore, through the Friends website – fojcml.org – or mailed to Friends of the Jackson County Main Library, P. O. Box 825, Sylva, North Carolina, 28779.
