A partnership between the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors and the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library continues to move forward. At Wednesday’s board meeting, Board President Harry Sanders questioned the status of the project.
“Back in November we talked about moving the law library (from the Lowndes County Courthouse) to the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library — where do we stand on this,” Sanders asked.
Lowndes County Administrator Ralph Billingsley said he had spoken with library officials several weeks ago and they were waiting to receive a grant to help expedite the process. Library Director Alice Shands said the library had been awarded a $4,000 grant.
“We applied for a grant to hire a consultant,” Shands said. “We were able to hire Lydia Quarles, a project manager at the Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State. “She is working on how this should be facilitated. We are also working on a contract between the supervisors and the library board. The move should be completed in the spring.”
The move could not come a moment too soon for Sanders, who said the courthouse was literally running out of space.
“The problem is that we just spent over $1 million remodeling the courthouse,” he said. “We have added a third circuit court judge and we are running out of room. We have county court, circuit court and chancery court all taking place in the courthouse. Last week, they were all in session at one time. Our chancery clerk had to hold court in a conference room. The law library is taking up space that we could use for an overflow court room. There are also law books in the grand jury room.”
Sanders said the books were a necessary commodity before the era of Internet and computers.
“Every courthouse had to have law books and a law library for attorneys and judges to use if they needed,” Sanders said. “Now, a judge can access these books from a computer while he’s on the bench — the law book system is antiquated. We asked the library if they wanted them and they said yes. These books are valuable — the (MUW) library wanted them, too, but we felt it was too far away from the courthouse.”
Billingsley also informed the board two library board seats would soon be vacated. The terms of District Two representative Clara Gilmer and District Three representative Doug Blount will expire March 30. The appointment is for five years.
Billingsley said a seat on the port authority board will also become vacant when District Three representative Randy Frederick’s term expires March 31. The port authority appointment is for four years.
Sanders said the board will be accepting resumes and applications for the vacated seats over the next two weeks.
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