Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said the expansion of the Putnam County Library’s Cookeville branch currently on schedule to meet its October completion deadline.
Porter said the construction crew has successfully completed the foundation and block work for the new addition after digging down to the basement level. Porter said the project is now moving into the next phase as walls begin to rise on the side of the existing building.
“Oh, they’re making great progress,” Porter said. “They’ve had some really good weather to be able to work, and so it’s coming right along. And if everything works right, the goal is to have it finished sometime about October. And I think they’re on schedule right now.”
Porter said the county secured a grant that covers 90 percent of the expansion costs, leaving the county responsible for only a 10 percent match. Porter said the decision to expand the current downtown facility was made because the building is considered an iconic location and the grant specifically required adding onto the existing structure.
“Well, that library is such an iconic place there downtown built back in the early 70s, I think it was,” Porter said. “And you’d be amazed at how many people come to the library. And of course, we’ve got branch libraries in Monterey, Baxter, and Algood. And so we got a grant that paid for 90% of that if we would add on to the existing library. So we felt like that was the best option right now.”
Porter said the construction team still has significant work ahead, including the completion of the exterior walls and the installation of all interior electrical and HVAC systems. Porter said the project has benefited from a recent dry period that allowed crews to work every day.
“Yeah, we’ve got to be finished in October,” Porter said. “That’s the deadline on the grant. And as long as the weather stays good like it has been—we’ve had a real dry period, and they’ve been able to work every day. So as long as the weather cooperates, everything should go good.”
Porter said the library remains functional during construction, though the rear entrance and back parking lot are currently closed to the public. Porter said visitors are currently required to use the front entrance and park in the lot across the street.
“Well, there’s so much more going on at the library than just books,” Porter said. “You still got a lot of people that still go and check out books. But, you know, the library rents out hotspots for Wi-Fi for folks that don’t have those available wherever they live. They do all kinds of classes. One of the things that’s going to happen with this addition and this new room that they’re building is they’re going to be teaching people how to do online medical, where that you—you know, your insurance company asks for you to do the—the doctor on the—on the video screen and doing that instead of going.”
Porter said the new space will allow the library to host classes on telemedicine and provide digital literacy training for residents who are not tech-savvy. Porter said the county also plans to work with the city next year on a separate capital project to expand and redo the parking lot shared with the nearby history museum.
“Well, its mission is to serve the community with educational materials and everything that the library does,” Porter said. “But it’s going to expand that and allow them to do all these classes we were talking about and add more room and change the entrance to the library in the back and make it better. It’s going to, you know, it’s adding several thousand square feet onto the library, giving them more room. And it’ll just be a great addition, I think, to our library.”