Dueling piano concert at Olney Legion Aug. 12

The Olney Community Library and Arts Center will host a night of dancing and dueling pianos at American Legion Post 414 on Aug. 12 to thank the community for its ongoing support for COVID-delayed renovations of the restrooms, Library Director Lori Cox said.

The Library had finished fundraising and was on the verge of beginning renovations to the restrooms in January 2020 when COVID struck.

The resulting supply chain and labor shortages nearly doubled the cost of the project, which called for a complete overhaul of the restrooms in the main library from floor to ceiling, including new floors, stalls, toilets, sinks, and lighting.

The Library is still holding the funds in an interest-bearing account and waiting for prices to come down, Mrs. Cox said.

“We want the community to understand that that money is still there ... and we are waiting until we can afford to do the bathrooms so that money is not being touched,” she said. “We are waiting on that renovation project to begin.”

The Library received an unexpected windfall of about $64,000 last year from Young County that was to be used only for literacy and arts programming – and some of those funds will pay for the Dueling Pianos event, she said.

“We thought, ‘What can we do?’ We have been doing a few things, purchasing things for students and books and we did all of the Summer Reading program with that money and we decided we needed to give back to the community,” she said. “Something we can do to have a good time and celebrate the things we have done well here at the library.”

Mrs. Cox got the idea from a wedding she attended that featured dueling pianos. She called around and booked The Eighty Eights Show from Dallas to play at the Legion. Tickets are $10 per person and are available at the Library and from Library Board members.

“We wanted the tickets to be [a price] that everybody can afford to go,” she said. “We want to showcase the Legion and all the things they’ve done out there. We wanted to have it out there so we had a place to dance and hang out and listen to music.”

The musicians play “anything from the 1950s to present day” and take tips for song requests, she said. “They told us that they would give us all the tips,” she said. “They were going to donate it back to the library. We are going to take whatever money is raised for tips and put it back toward the students and giving them a free book at Christmas.”

The audience is limited to 275 tickets, she said. The Library will provide a light snack and water and lemonade or tea, and the Legion bar will be open, she said.

“We are going to have tables set up and a dance floor and light snacks as a gift to the community,” she said. “It’s going to be a great time.”