By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Wood County District Public Library will increase its footprint in downtown Bowling Green with the purchase of the house just north of the Carter House.
The library’s trustees approved the purchase for $179,000 Monday (Oct. 18).
The ultimate goal of the purchase, said Library Director Michael Penrod on Tuesday, would be the construction of a storage building. He said his intent would to be to construct a durable 4,000-square-foot structure designed to look like the carriage houses associated with the Oil Boom homes on West Wooster Street.
That will take a few years to realize. Until then it will provide additional lawn space for library events at the Carter House. The pandemic, Penrod said, showed the value of being able to offer outdoor programming.
The library purchased the Carter House in 2011 and reopened it after renovation in 2013 for library events and to rent for community events.
The tenants now occupying the rental will not be evicted. They will be allowed to stay through the end of their leases in May, and then the house will be razed sometime in summer and then the site will be landscaped.
Most of the funding for the purchase is coming from oil pipeline money. In the past three years, the library has received just over $122,000. When the money came in Penrod with the board’s agreement decided to set it aside and not use it for operations. Because of the uncertainty and the declining amounts generated “that was never money we were ever going to use to keep the lights on and buy books,” Penrod said. Instead it was available for one-time expenses.
The two pipeline companies Nexus and Rover are appealing the assessments.
Penrod said he checked with the county auditor to see how much the library would have to pay back if the courts found in the pipeline companies’ favor. He was told $5,000.
The court cases continue with hearings planned for early next year.
Penrod said the idea for purchasing the house was his. The library already has an easement in back of the property, but gaining access to it requires contacting the tenants to move cars.
The property was purchased from BK Rentals.
The library is considering plans for its next renovation, but the planning only highlights space limitations in the library.
[SEE RELATED STORY: The community wants more from library, so trustees consider ways to get more library]
Moving storage across the street would alleviate some of those problems.
The library has experienced “phenomenal the growth over the last 20 years,” Penrod said. And when it conducted a community survey three years ago, they wanted more – books, meeting space, seating.
