Old library up for grabs again

It once held a library, and in August it looked certain to become the home of an insurance agency.

Now, county officials are once again looking for a buyer for the former Warren C. Gibbs Library.

At a Wednesday meeting of the Development Authority of Columbia County, board members said they plan to soon advertise the former library as an available property again and solicit bids from the public.

The previous round of bidding, in August, delivered a winning bid of $901,100 from Stephen I. Dekle, the owner of The Insurance Center, who backed out in September after the discovery of damage to the roof of the 25-year-old building.

The board did not decide whether to repair the damage or sell the property as is. County Attorney Doug Batchelor said it might not be wise to repair the roof just to see the building razed if the buyer decides that the structure doesn't suit his purposes.

The authority recently went ahead with a rezoning of the 2-acre, 8,900-square-foot North Belair Road property from Residential-2 to Professional-1, which would permit traditional office uses. The other three bid proposals in August also called for office-professional uses.

Gibbs Library opened in November 1982 and was named after the former county school board member as part of an agreement between the county and Gibbs' stepson, who donated the land. The library closed in February after the new Columbia County Library opened next to the Evans courthouse.

In other development authority business, Dr. Andy Allgood showed plans for a mini-warehouse storage facility in the Horizon South Industrial Park near the intersection of Wrightsboro Road and John Deere Parkway. Allgood also said he plans to build a shopping center and possibly an office complex on about 30 acres in the industrial park.

The board also approved the payment of $156,899 to Kuhlke Construction for work on the county's new speculative building, which is in the industrial park.