Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Washakie County Library staff member Talena Dehmel puts a book on the shelf in the small room that houses all the children's non-fiction and middle grade fiction, Thursday at the Worland library. This small room is just one of the reasons renovations are needed at the library.
WORLAND – The subject of renovating the Washakie County Library in Worland was brought up during the county commissioners meeting Tuesday, Jan. 5 with a decision to have the TSP architects, out of Sheridan, assess renovating the current library to meet the needs of the library.
"The current library is an old hospital and it isn't really set up properly for a library. There are a lot of small rooms and that really isn't the way you would structure it (library) to best serve the needs of the library," County Commissioner Aaron Anderson said.
"The lighting, the floor, interior layout, undersized meeting rooms, seating needs and not meeting all handicap requirements are some of the issues with the current facility," Washakie County Library Director Karen Funk said.
The library received funding through the one cent tax from 2008 - 2012. The tax generated the library $1 million dollars which was originally intended to build a new facility but the cost of a new facility is much more than the $1 million dollars. "There's been architecture done before to do a brand new stand-alone facility, there was architecture done to attach a facility to the community center (Worland "Community Center Complex) and the issue that we ran into is that the cost of the stand-alone facility and the cost of attaching onto the community center is really high which makes it very difficult to get anything done," Anderson said.
According to TSP's Washakie County Library options report on Dec. 10, 2009, the cost to attach a facility to the Worland Community Center Complex would be $1,904,980 and the cost to build a stand-alone would be $2,931,075
The library board and TSP will be meeting soon to discuss what the needs of the library are and the cost to meet those needs. "We want to identify what the cost would be to renovate and update the facility," Anderson stated.
"If the public feels that there are needs that we are not addressing, we welcome their comment, "Funk stated. "Please come into the library and let us know your concerns," she added.
