MARMET, W.Va. –Residents in Marmet will soon have to find an alternate to their library service needs.
The Kanawha County Public Library announced Friday that they will be closing the Marmet Public Library on May 2nd.
The building, which is a single-wide, modular was built in November 1978 and has served the area for almost 47 years.
Gabrielle Cochran, the Eastern Region Manager for Marmet and other libraries, said that the decision was made by the library system because its become a safety concern.
“We have worked for a really long time to continue for as long as we can to provide services out of the building that we have but as of now its become like a safety issue, it’s an older building and we just want to make sure wherever were providing services we have a safe space to do so,” she said.
She said that the decision was hard to make but it was necessary.
“We have regular patrons that we love to see, you know every week when were there,” Cochran said. “So, it’s definitely not a decision that we took lightly, and we’ve tried to maintain our hours there as long as we could.”
Cochran said that right now there are no officials plans on what’s going to happen to the building, that there just trying to make a plan on how they are going to continue providing services.
“We’re really just more focused on how we can continue to provide services to that area,” she said.
Currently they have a couple of different ways that they will continue providing services.
Starting on May 8th, the KCPL’s Bookmobile will be making regular in Marmet. They will be there from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then come back and stay from 2:30 p.m. until 4 p.m.
And the Marmet Recreation Center, throughout the year, will be hosting library programming and events for patrons.
Patrons can also visit either the Riverside Public Library, which is located at 1 Warrior Way, Suite 104, Belle WV or the Glasgow Branch Library which is located in Glasgow’s Municipal Building at 129 4th Avenue, Glasgow, WV.
The reason for the closure being next month is so patrons get enough time to get used to the new services that will be available to them.
“So, were trying to make the transition as smooth as possible with as few interruptions to library services and programming as we can,” Cochran said.
And as they make the transition, she urges residents to be patient with them.
“We hope that our patrons can give us a little understanding at this time and know that there are things going on that were trying to continue to serve the area, that’s definitely not something were going to forget about or go to the wayside,” she said.
Anyone with questions or concerns can either visit kcpls.org or call the Riverside Public Library or Glasgow Branch Library.
Photo: Kanawha County Public Library website