Several residents were present at the Mason County Public Library Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday, to voice concerns on the location of a new library building.

Discussion on the location of the library has been ongoing for more than a year, as board members are looking for an ideal location that would allow for further expansion and programming, if the library should want to do so in the future.

Several ideas have been discussed for the library, including trying to find locations downtown and along U.S. 62.

Maysville resident Sally Parker asked why board members had considered moving the building to U.S. 62 instead of remaining downtown.

According to Trustee Sally Teegarden, the current location of the building, which is on East Third Street, will allow for one more expansion, but nothing afterward.

"We could expand once more in this building," she said. "But, it would be a one-and-done expansion."

Teegarden said reasons for moving the building to a site along U.S. 62 were outlined in a paper provided to those attending the meeting. The reasons include increased traffic that would support increased library use, better visibility, library services would be more available to county residents and several conditions limit the amount and type of construction in the current location.

The current facility, built about 20 years ago, is faced with significant foundation problems and there are issues with the underlying soil. The foundation and soil problems first surfaced several years ago when the library added a children's section to the present building.

Maysville Young Professional Network President Ellen Cartmell said she was speaking not only on behalf of herself, but also the MYPN and others in the community.

"There are studies that show more millenials use libraries more than any other age group," she said. "Revilitilzation is also a focus of millenials, rather than new construction. There is also a petition being circulated that has almost 1,000 signatures from people who want the library to stay downtown."

Maysville resident Sarah Winter provided the online petition that garnered 970 signatures.

"It is clearly the will of the people for the library to stay downtown," she said.

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Cartmell also said that, though it isn't the concern of the library, if there were a community center located downtown, access to the library wouldn't be as big of a concern with the public.

Trustees said they are looking at all their options, including locations downtown and will continue the discussion at the September board meeting.

During the meeting, MCPL Director Valerie Zempter also offered a suggestion for the library to begin allowing children under 18 to rent movies.

"It's always been the policy to not allow those under 18 to rent movies because we were unable to screen the restricted material and prove their age. With that changing, I think it would be a good idea to allow those under 18 to rent movies," she said.

Zempter said the new policy will begin around Sept. 1.

Also during the meeting, trustees approved the tax rates for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. The tax rates are 6.7 cents per $100 of real property, 6.7 cents per $100 of personal property and 4 cents per $100 for watercraft/motor vehicles. The rates are the same as last year.

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Library location; tax rates discussed by board | Local | maysville ... - Ledger Independent