Butler County breaks ground on new public library

MORGANTOWN, Ky. (WBKO) -The Butler County Public Library Board of Trustees and members of the community gathered on Friday morning to celebrate the groundbreaking of their new public library.

“I think libraries have always been more than just about books,” said BCPL director Kenna Martin. “I think they are community centers and places where neighbors can come together. I think they’re pillars of Democracy.”

The new facility, located at 402 North Main Street, aims to help revitalize the area by providing many key features to the community that some might not otherwise have access to in a more rural area.

According to Monica Sumner, the architect who designed the new facility, the new library will have a large community room space, an area for local history, office space, and a maker space for local creators.

“The best feature of all, I think, is the maker space for high tech and low tech making. Crafts, sewing, greenroom-type activities. Making videos, making music, all of those resources will be available to the community,” Sumner said.

Jaqueline, a child who frequents the current library, said what she is most looking forward to are the new books that will fill the children’s area.

Officials say the primary reasons for the new facility come from the programming outgrowing the current library and the library itself having progressively more expensive maintenance issues due to age.

When looking for a location, they teamed up with the Eberman family, who offered their land for the project at a discounted rate.

“The site where the library is going to be, the real estate has been in Mr. Eberman’s family for over a hundred years, and he has made a way for the library to obtain that property,” said Butler County Library board member Cody Henderson. “The Eberman family will be tied to the library in that special way forever. Without them, this project would never have happened like it is.”

Don Eberman, who owned the land, expressed his love for Morgantown and excitement for the new library.

“The Eberman Family has quite a history with the town,” Eberman said. “My great-grandad put in the first electricity in town, they put in the first plumbing in town, and for many years I spent every summer down here, but I really love Morgantown. To me, even though I’ve never really permanently lived here, I feel like it’s part of our family. So, I’m looking forward to seeing the progress of the library.”

The project has been in the works for a little over four years, according to Henderson, who first began with library director Kenna Marin applying for a grant through the Kentucky Department of Library and Archives.

Henderson said while the grant doesn’t completely pay for the library, it was the first step in getting the project off the ground.

Officials expect the new Butler County Public Library to be ready for excited readers in 12 to 18 months.