OISD Takes Over Library

The Olney City Council last week approved the transfer of ownership of the Olney Community Library and Arts Center building to the Olney Independent School District to lower the library’s soaring insurance costs and to pay for needed upgrades to the 1979 structure.

The OCLAC board of directors, which owned the building, and Olney ISD trustees last month agreed on the plan to lease it back to the library board.

The library will continue to be open to the public and will operate normally under the new arrangement but the children’s library will be enclosed and accessible through secured doors during school hours, school officials said.

The school district also will make security upgrades to the building’s large windows.

The transaction guarantees that the building will remain a public library, OISD board president Summer Branum said..

“When they sell this building to us, they are including a provision that says if we ever use that building for anything else but a public library, they get it back,” Mrs. Branum said. “We are buying it for $1 but if we start using it for something other than a library they get it back with no legal action.”

OCLAC will remain a nonprofit, library director Lori Cox said.

The library was spending $23,000 a year on property insurance, out of an annual budget of $38,000 to $42,000. OISD can insure the premises for about $4,000, OISD Superintendent Dr. Greg Roach said.