Three years ago the Athens-Limestone Public Library board conducted a survey to determine how large a facility it would need to serve the needs of the community through 2020 and came up with a 37,000-square-foot building.

A year ago, the board formed a library foundation to build a new library, a project they estimated would take from 8 to 10 years, according to Librarian Susan Todd.

“Foundation members were also keeping an eye out for properties that went up for sale around town,” said Todd. “When the Kroger building went on the market, they said, ‘Oh, what a good idea.”

On Monday, library foundation member Harvey Craig came to the Athens City Council with the proposal to renovate the building for a library. Craig said he needed to get the city’s “blessing” on the project before the board committed about $700,000 in funds from the Southard Fund to purchase the old Kroger building.

The Southard Fund is not public money, but interest accrued from a 1990 bequest from the estate of the late Shelby Southard, a former Athens resident who left $1 million to the Athens library in his will.

The estimated cost of buying the 40,000-square-foot building, renovating, landscaping and parking is about $5 million, Craig said.

“The Kroger building has the square footage we need,” said Todd. “We determined three years ago that the space we needed to be doing what we were doing and housing our collection was at the minimum 17,000 square feet. This building was built in 1970 with 10,000 square feet to meet the needs for the next 20 years. But here we are 36 years later and we’re still doing with 10,000 feet.”

Todd said the library closed the public meeting room several years ago because it was needed for storage, a boardroom, annual book sale, and children’s story hour, among other needs. The former children’s reading area is now taken up by bookracks. The former “Athens Room,” which housed local history and genealogy materials, is now office space for three workers, and that collection has been moved out on the floor.

“Our staff is literally on top of each other,” said Todd. She also said restrooms are not accessible to people with disabilities.

Another advantage going for the Kroger building is its high visibility location, she said.

“I can’t tell you how many times a day we give callers directions on how to get to our present location,” said Todd. “The Kroger building is just more accessible, and it has a loading dock. People who make deliveries here have been saying for years that we need a loading dock.”

Parking is also another problem at the present location, Todd said, with just 34 available spaces.

Mayor Dan Williams on Monday called for an “economic summit” to study where all the funding for the city’s needs would come from. City Council members said the County Commission should share equally in the financial burden of a new library.

On Tuesday, County Commission Chairman David Seibert said he has not been approached by the library board or foundation, but he said the county has to consider other projects.

“There is the courthouse and the board of education,” said Seibert. “We’ll certainly listen to them, but we will have some questions, like what is that going to do to staff (numbers)? There are just lots of things to consider, like how much more in operational costs and how we meet those demands in coming years.

“We would be happy to listen to them, but I’m not ready to commit to anything.”