The executive director of the Jackson Hinds Library System told members of the Jackson City Council she received “sobering” news about what it might cost to build a flagship library in downtown Jackson.
Members of the system’s board of directors have toured potential sites in an effort to re-establish the demolished Eudora Welty Library, said Jeanne Williams, executive director of the system, who spoke to the council during hearings for the budget for the next fiscal year.
“To renovate one of those sites would have been in the $12 million to $18 million range,” she said.
Those figures are based on estimates from the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, which was created in 1968 to promote economic development in the city.
“We’re not at a point where we have an architect or engineer who could give us actual numbers,” Williams said. “We’re just exploring.”
To re-establish the Welty Library will take significant resources from both the city and library system, she said.
“We’re all going to have to prioritize this together,” she said. “The discussions with the new administration haven’t really started. We’re going to have to look at the costs and prioritize what’s feasible and what the timeline might be.”
Under Mississippi law, public libraries may not use their own funds for capital projects such as land acquisition, building construction or major infrastructure replacements. These costs must be paid entirely from the general funds of the county or municipality.
Public libraries also have limited ways to raise revenue such as property tax millage, local government allocations, state aid, grants, donations and support groups such as Jackson Friends of the Library.
Thel library system announced in March 2024 it had received a $3.7 million grant to go toward replacing the Welty Library.
“No paperwork has been signed,” Williams said, noting that in order for the funding to be received a property must be identified.
There would be additional costs in reopening the Welty Library besides a building.
Williams provided the council members this estimate of the costs of re-opening the Welty Library: $240,000 annually for staff, $250,000 for the collection, $15,000 for equipment and $1.5 million for furniture.
“We will have books that we saved from the Eudora Welty Library, but by the time we get into a new building they will have been in storage for three to four years,” she said. “I’m not sure how much of that collection we would be able to use.
“You would want some newer items. Even with a base collection, there’s still a significant cost to updating that collection, so it is useful in a community library.”
Williams, who said “right now a downtown core library seems to be the priority,” provided the council with an estimate of what it would cost to open a branch to re-establish the Tisdale Library, which was torn down in 2023 after storm-related flooding resulted in black mold growing inside. It was located for many years at 807 E. Northside Drive.
The estimate for re-establishing the Tisdale Branch is: $130,000 for staff; $150,000, opening collection; $8,000, equipment; furniture, $500,000; and the cost of the facility, which is to be determined.
Williams also gave council members an idea about what it would cost to re-establish the Richard Wright Library in south Jackson, which was closed after being vandalized.
The estimate to re-establish the Richard Wright Library is: $190,000, staff; $250,000, opening collection; $15,000, equipment; $900,000, furniture; and facility cost to be determined.
From the beginning of this year until about the middle of August, about 85,000 physical items and 21,000 digital items have been checked out systemwide, Williams said. About 192,000 visitors have walked through the branches, she said.
The computers used by the public are currently in the process of being replaced.
Williams expects the 137 computers used by the public across the system to be replaced by early fall. The library system budgeted for the new computers, which will be equipped with Windows 11, and technicians from the Mississippi Library Commission are installing them.
“The computers that we’re pulling out use Windows 7,” Williams said. “Windows 7 hasn’t been supported in years. That’s a very significant upgrade in usability. There are a lot of programs that won’t work on Windows 7 and they require rebooting a lot.”
Williams said that 36.4 percent of the households in Jackson have no internet service and 19 percent of households have internet service that is below broadband level. “You have almost 50 percent of Jackson residents who need internet,” she said.
She hopes the system can implement free notary service, cloud printing from personal devices and a library of free things that could be checked out such as tools, instruments or small appliances.
“I’m not forcing anyone to get notary training and the bonding, but it’s not a long process to get that up and running,” she said.
Establishing a library of free things would take a little longer, she said, and require input from the community and staff.
“When I worked in Washington, we were in an agriculture community and near national parks,” she said. “The library of free things have implements to press apples and bear cannisters for camping in the parks where they were needed.”
