Introducing: The South Benton Library Project!

The community’s effort being made toward a new library in Monroe and the south Benton County area is almost in its second year of planning. We have had several meetings and progress is being made toward that end. At our last meeting on January 23 we agreed upon a name for our effort. Thus the South Benton Library Project or SBLP was born! At that meeting, several key issues were discussed besides what to call our group. South Benton Community Enhancement (SBCE) has agreed to sponsor the library project, which gives us the benefit of a non-profit status and opens up many grant possibilities. Meanwhile, the Monroe City council adopted an official resolution to support our efforts and that opens up other grant possibilities. We have a bookkeeper and a back up bookkeeper. As soon a bank account is opened, the Friends of the Corvallis-Benton County Library will deposit $500 which will be used for various start up costs, including a copy of QuickBooks for accounting. Teresa Landers, Deputy Library Director for the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library has discussed progress and plans on a variety of issues including how the County and SBCE are working together to get the railroad depot behind Wilbur Ellis moved sometime very soon to the corner of Ash and Hwy 99 which is the site that was agreed upon for the new library at a meeting in November 2006. We are currently looking for a person who will be our official liaison between South Benton Library Project and South Benton Community Enhancement. We also need to identify someone willing to be the Chair or Public Face for SBLP. We have had some wonderful articles written in both the Corvallis Gazette Times and the Tri-County News about our efforts. If you would like to join in this wonderful endeavor for a new library in Monroe please contact Lori Pelkey at the Monroe Community Library at 847-5174.