The Jefferson City Council recently approved an architect firm to conduct a study for possible expansion for the city’s library.

At their most recent meeting on July 13th, the Council approved up to $43,000 for Franks Design Group to do a feasibility study for expansion of the library. City Administrator Mike Palmer says the study will include three options, with costs associated with each, including renovating the current facilities, building a new facility, or re-using another building. He notes, the library is currently at 8,000-square-feet and, as was pointed out in a previous study, the building needs to be 18,000-square-feet to adequately provide all of their services.

Palmer believes it’s time for the library to expand, after the original historic Carnegie building from 1904 included 4,000-square-feet and another 4,000-square-feet was added in the 1960s.

“I’ve spoken with the architect some already that maybe utilizing the existing site and modifying it. That’s going to be one of the options (that) we’ll have to look at that. Hopefully that might be the case because it’s in a great location for people to access right now.”

Franks Design Group has already done work with the City as part of a $1 million downtown facade improvement project to several buildings in 2018. Palmer adds, up to $40,000 will be paid through the City’s allotment of funds from the adjusted gross revenue of Wild Rose Casino and Resort in Jefferson and Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation. He says if it’s needed, the remaining amount will come from the library budget.