The library in Wellston will be under new management soon.
Wellston City Manager John Cobb said the current Wellston Community Library, which is a volunteer non-profit organization, will be turned into a municipal library.
“The Friends of the Wellston Library Board came to us and asked if we’d consider taking over operations as a municipal library,” he said. “So we’re starting a municipal library.”
Cobb said it’s basically like a change in management and will be a public library instead of a private library.
“It’ll continue to operate how it has basically always had,” he said.
Cobb said the town will be funding the library.
“We’ll just step up with the funding to be sure they can continue to operate and apply for grants for them,” he said.
This change in management will ensure there is funding for the years to come.
The process of this change started about six months ago.
“Surprisingly, the process wasn’t as difficult as you might think,” he said.
Cobb said they created an ordinance for the library and the library committee that run the day to day operations.
COVID-19 slowed the process, but they were still able to complete the transfer from a community library to a municipal library.
“We’re working with the library to inventory everything and get a transition plan in place,” he said.
Cobb said as of right now patrons of the library won’t see any differences.
“We do have plans to expand the programs over the next few years,” he said. “We want to make sure that the community has access to a library for years to come and utilize the taxpayers dollars to better the community. It’s a good investment of taxpayers dollars.”