“Around Town”

By: Ernie Wren

Tuesday, March 7th is “National Library Workers Day”. To celebrate, we can not only applaud the wonderful employees at our local library, but also take a moment to remember the roller coaster path it took to get our current library in place. Our first library in Southern Boone was essentially the “bookmobile” which made weekly stops in Ashland, but as demand grew, the Daniel Boone Regional Library (DBRL) rented downtown office space to expand services to the local community. As President of the Ashland Optimist Club from 2001 to 2002, my son Isaac and I headed up a service project to donate and put together new shelving units to meet the increased need for space.
In 2007 DBRL put forward a proposal for a new library facility, which many in the community referred to as the “Taj Mahal” of libraries. It was very elaborate and expensive and was quickly rejected by voters. In 2011, there was another proposal to build a new 6,500 square foot facility that patrons deemed more aligned with meeting the needs of the community. It was accepted and built. Some of you may remember joining in on the “human chain” where people lined up from the original downtown library to the new library to pass books all the way up the line. This was a very effective and efficient way to move the books and a fun community event! This coming Tuesday, stop in our current library and appreciate all that has been done, and continues to be done on a daily basis to serve your library needs.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal