The Buckingham County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Monday to allow the library committee to move forward with negotiating a proposed contract with Crabtree, Rohrbaugh & Associates, the Charlottesville-based architectural firm hired to design the Buckingham County Public Library and community center from the former Dillwyn Primary School building at the intersection of Routes 15 and 20.

Members of the public and board were shown a presentation of the potential floor plan for the library and County Community Center in December.

The presentation included two-dimensional floor plans, three-dimensional concept pictures of the library’s front desk and reading and computer areas and animations of the inside and outside of the building plan.

Josh Bower, studio director and senior project manager at the architectural firm, said during the presentation the library design would be set to include a front desk, spaces for computers, book shelving, spaces for tables and chairs to meet or read and a children’s area. Bower said the children’s area would have walls to shut out noise from the main lobby but would have windows so the children in the room will be visible. He also said the children’s area would have a toilet station.

Buckingham County Administrator Rebecca Carter said the committee would “hopefully” bring that contract back to the board during the Feb. 4 board meeting.

“Once that’s done we will have a probable cost for you with the final design that’s in the contract,”

Carter said at Jan. 8 meeting.

She cited in an agenda document that presently the county has $250,000 in the budget each year set aside for debt service payment.

“The question posed to me by some of the board members is can the county afford to make the payment on this project without a tax increase,” Carter said. “We are working with Davenport & Company to provide you with several options of financing and finally pay for it when we get those numbers.”

She said the project can be done without a tax increase.

During the public participation section of the meeting, representatives from the Buckingham County Public Library spoke in favor of the plans for the library.

“Over the years a lot of people have worked on getting a new library in Buckingham County. I have to be honest, when this was first proposed I was a bit skeptical about reusing the school for this purpose,” said Rick Ewing, Central Virginia Regional Library (CVRL) director. “… I’m now convinced that it will not only work but will be better than the old plan that located the library next to the solid waste disposal site.”

He said the library at the former school is arguably the best location in Buckingham County and putting the community center with a large meeting space in the same building as the library is a great idea.

“Both services will be busier than if they were separate,” Ewing said. “… To me the whole thing is a recipe for success.”

Megan Almond, CVRL children’s programmer, said she thought there would be a lot of overlap between people using the community center and people using the library.

Almond noted how small the teen section is currently at the Buckingham branch library.

“A lot of kids will come to story time with their parents and then they’ll come while they’re in elementary school for summer reading program and then they hit about 13 and you’re like, ‘Where’d they all go?’” Almond said.

She said one thing that a lot libraries notice is that if the library has an area teens can claim as their own, they stick around.

“They have places to study, they have places to sit and use the wifi,” Almond said. “They have a place that they can sit and hang out and they’ll stick around for it.”

View a full presentation of the plans for the library at: http://buckinghamcountyva.org/Docs/County%20Admin/County%20Supervisors%20Presentation%20121117.pdf