JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
The city of Jasper held its monthly meeting on Monday, December 9 and under discussion was the Carolyn Stewart Public Library board report.
According to the board’s new director, Ann Gray, the library board had planned to have its first meeting later in the month of December but was ultimately postponed due to illness. The meeting will cover the board’s set of policies and bylaws going forward. Another note she added was of Carolyn Stewart Public Library itself, compared to the county’s other libraries, has had the most visits from guests across the region.
“From the calendar year of 2024 for all the three libraries of the county, our library does seven times more in people coming to the library than the other two libraries,” noted Gray. When asked about the reasoning behind the libraries’ larger margin of visitors, she explained that due to Jasper’s central location as well as being the seat of Marion County is what draws more people to come to the local library in town. When speaking with Ms. Gray, she also explained about the library board’s plans of expanding the library as a means of creating more room to accommodate the growing number of attendance. An idea that has been long in the making since 2000.
“We’ve been talking about this since 2000. Everyone in town has talked about it. The library’s talked about it, the city’s talked about it, but it’s never come quite together, and we really think now that we can focus on that with some grants and then really do some strategic planning just for Jasper’s library that we can accommodate the growth that we’re experiencing,” she explained. Ms. Gray has been the director of Carolyn Stewart Public Library for two years. Now, as the director of Jasper’s own library board, both she and other members of the municipal library are looking forward to the future of both it, as well as the newly established library board for the town as a whole.
The Jasper Municipal Library Board’s rescheduled meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 21 at 5 p.m. at the library.
