City identifies four library sites

Thu, 11/08/2007 - 4:04pm
By: John Thompson

By next week, Senoia officials should have a better idea about where the city’s new library will be located.

During Monday night’s City Council meeting, city administrator Richard Ferry told city officials that four alternative sites had been identified for the building. The sites are a vacant lot next to City Hall on Main Street, a site near the city’s ballfields off Howard Road, a site near the city’s near park at the intersection of Ga. Highway 16 and Pylant Street and near the railroad bridge on Rockaway Road.

City officials were forced to scramble for alternative sites after a letter was received from the state Library Board discounting the city’s preferred site in the city’s park. State officials are concerned about the proximity to railroad tracks and overhead powerlines at the location.

“We’ve staked the site and the powerlines are not an issue,” said Ferry. A state official is headed to Senoia Tuesday to look at the site, and also examine the alternative sites.

“This has been an extremely frustrating situation for all of us,” said Mayor Robert Belisle.

In February, 2006, the Senoia City Council decided to place the building in the city’s Seavy Street park.

But early this May, the city learned of the state’s displeasure over the site Previously, the town had applied for a grant from the state for the building, but thought it had been turned down. In late May, the city learned the grant had been approved, but in June it did not receive funding in the state budget.

But if the library gets funded through the state and a site is approved, construction could start by the middle of next year.

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