Library Board To Decide Future Of Oconee County Library Site

The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees is holding a called meeting at 4:30 p.m. on Monday at the Bogart Library to discuss and likely make a decision on a new location for the library in Watkinsville.

The called meeting follows the regular meeting of the Board on Jan. 11 at which it heard presentations on two different proposals for sites of the Oconee County Library now at 1080 Experiment Station Road in Watkinsville.

The Library Board voted in July of 2019 to move the Oconee County Library from that location to the planned new county administrative building at the intersection of U.S. 441 and SR 15 (North Main Street).

The County has gone forward based on that vote to develop rough architectural plans for a building that would include both a library and county administrative offices now in the Courthouse in downtown Watkinsville and in the Government Annex on Greensboro Highway on the south side of Watkinsville.

Board of Trustees Chair Mark Campbell told the Library Board at the Jan. 11 meeting that since the 2019 vote “the City of Watkinsville and developer Duke Gibbs have come forward with an alternate location.”

Gibbs wants to incorporate a new library into his Wire Park mixed-use development on Barnett Shoals Road just at the city limit.

Watkinsville Council Members Christine Tucker and Brian Brodrick joined Gibbs in making a pitch to the Library Board at that meeting for Wire Park.

Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell restated the county’s plans for the library at that meeting.

For more on the story, with a video of the Jan. 11 meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.