Stewart, appearing on this weekend's Northeast Georgia This Week on WDUN NEWS TALK 550, says it took about two years for things to return to normal after the county broke from the Chestatee Regional Library System following a books controversy that lasted for months.
"We had to overcome negative feelings from persons not pleased with the change," Stewart said. "We dealt with that by, basically, affirming to them that we were starting out as a new, vibrant system."
Stewart says about half the public library systems in the state are single-county systems.
As for the future of the Hall County system, Stewart says plans are moving ahead for a library branch in the Flowery Branch area.
She says there are plans for a 43,000-square-foot facility in that area, which would be the largest library branch in the county.
"We're looking at tapping into state library construction money for that building," Stewart said. "We could benefit from SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) dollars and we could also possibly benefit from impact fees."
Stewart also said a 14,000-square-foot library branch is planned in the Lula-Clermont area.
She said the downtown Gainesville branch will always be considered the headquarters branch, but that it may be necessary to move some administrative functions to another site in the future.
To mark the 5th anniversary of the Hall County Library System, an open house will be held at all branches Thursday October 3 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Dr. Larmar Veatch, the State Librarian, is scheduled to be on hand at the headquarters branch on Main Street in Gainesville. There will be a short presentation at the headquarters branch at 4:30 p.m.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/9/189570