The Madisonville City Council unanimously approved a $70,000 loan to the Hopkins County-Madisonville Library renovation project Monday night.
If accepted by the library board, the low-interest loan from the city would be used towards paying off the remaining $69,000 of the prevailing wage judgment issued by the Kentucky Labor Cabinet in May.
The KLC’s judgment, along with several accusations of meeting and bidding violations, slowed the project’s progress in 2013. But Library Board President Carolyn Ferrell says she’s excited for the news of the city’s loan and that combined with a $500,000 loan from the Hopkins County Fiscal Court, the board can finally return to renovation work.
“Now, we’ll still have steps to go through, we’ll have bids to let and those kinds of things," says Ferrell. "But once we’ve paid the balance of this prevailing wage, I think the feeling of the board is that we’ll quickly as possible get back to the renovations and with the county’s money complete the renovations and open the library.”
Ferrell says if there's no major obstacles in the bidding process, a completed public library could be seen as early as mid-spring.
“The library is about 70 to 75 percent complete, so once we get back into the building, I don’t think it will take more than 3 months or so," says Ferrell.
The board will discuss accepting the city’s loan at its next scheduled meeting.
