The Todd County Public Library has been selected to receive a Public Library Facilities Construction Fund Grant from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, for what will eventually be a new facility located at 507 South Main Street in Elkton.
For the next 20 years, the library receive $212,150 to assist with the debt retirement of this considerable construction, totaling more than $4.2 million through the next two decades.
This specific location is situated near the Elkton Volunteer Fire Department, the Todd County Park, and the Todd County Senior Citizens’ Center — and is within walking distance of the Todd County Central High School campus.
The current library, located at 302 East Main Street in Elkton, has been there since 1989 and is in a building constructed during the 1960s and approximately 3,300 square feet.
The new facility will be triple in size at nearly 10,000 total square feet, in order to better accommodate the public, and will include an expanded print collection space, programming space, a computer area, a family and local history room, storage and workspaces, a small conference room and some quiet study areas.
According to Todd County Public Library Director Audrea Clairmont, the project site was made possible through the generosity of Kelvin DeBerry, Brad Shemwell, and the late Guy Mallory and his family. DeBerry and Shemwell, anticipating future construction, sold the library’s Board of Trustees some property at a discounted price. And prior to Mallory’s death, the family donated an additional piece of adjacent land to improve the plat.
Clairmont called the KDLA grant a “godsend for [the] community,” in what should change the learning landscape for generations.
