After years of waiting, delays, confusion and funding controversy, the Knox County Public Library broke ground Friday on a new nearly 19,000 square-foot facility.
At the site of the future library, board members, library officials and community leaders gathered to celebrate the milestone.
The excitement was palpable going into the groundbreaking ceremony. Library board members were joined by local officials, including Barbourville Mayor David Thompson; Knox County Judge-Executive Mike Mitchell; state Rep. Tom O’Dell Smith; Wendy O’Connor, Southeast Region consultant for the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives; and County Clerk Mike Corey.
“With 100% commitment from the City of Barbourville, this day marks more than the start of a construction project,” Thompson said. “It represents progress, possibility, and our community commitment to education, literacy, and opportunity.”
Library Director Lana Messer Hale shared her excitement for the future.
“After 40 plus years as your library director, I can say with confidence this is a proud and exciting day for your library, for our library, for our staff, for our board, and our entire community,” Hale said.
Hale outlined the library’s history, noting it was first housed inside City Hall until it moved to the current Knox Street location in 1996.
“When I first started, our library was located inside City Hall. It was small, limited, and we quickly outgrew it,” she said. “We eventually found the space that better fit our needs at that time, and we’ve been grateful for it. But as Knox Countians know, we have outgrown this space now, too.”
She added: “Our programs have expanded, our services have evolved, and our community deserves more. We’ve been saving and saving a lot of planning and dreaming of this day for a very long time, and I believe we found the perfect location. It’s very accessible, welcoming, and ready to support the next generation of readers, learners, and thinkers. Today’s library is not just about books, although we still check out plenty of books. It’s about story hours and time and time, tutoring and book clubs, summer reading for all ages, Lego clubs, Pokémon clubs, and yes, we even go to the nursing home and play bingo.”
Hale said that this summer the library has served more than 1,800 people, including 300 children registered for the summer reading program.
“This is an exciting time for my district, and for our county,” Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of good things in the pipeline, one of them being this library, the other being our new judicial center we started downtown.”
In a spirit of unity, Smith said: “The misunderstandings and the visions that come in communities a lot of times, it’s because everybody has a vision. Everybody has a purpose, but the most important day, I will tell you this, and seeing how things come out, the most important day is when everybody comes back together.”
“As Judge-Executive, I’ve made it my mission to focus on improving the quality of life for the people of Knox County,” Mitchell said. “We are creating spaces that serve our residents, meet the needs and reflect our pride in this place we call home. I want to commend the current and previous library board members for their presence and getting us to this point. Their dedication and vision have brought us here today. Thank you to everyone who has played a role in making this day possible.”
Mitchell added: “The future of Knox County is bright, and we are just getting started.”
“We provide programs and services to them that make a real difference in the lives of our residents,” Hale said. “I would also like to take a moment to thank all the past and present board members who have shared the same vision for a new library and worked and worked toward that for your support, commitment, and belief in our mission has helped (to get) to where we are today. This new state-of-the-art library will allow us to expand our programs, host more events and better serve Knox Countians of all ages. Just as we moved into our current building with no debt, we are proud to say that we plan on moving into this one with no debt — certainly looks like that’s going to happen, and that makes everybody happy, me and everybody. That was thanks to financial planning and the unwavering support of our community. It is truly a dream come true, and I am so grateful to share this moment.”
Construction of the new library is expected to take about 18 months.
The project began in 2018 with the purchase of property at the intersection of Daniel Boone Drive, Cumberland Avenue and Broadway Street. The site was once home to long-gone businesses including Begley’s Drug Store, later Rite Aid Pharmacy; Silver Screen Video & More; Hillbilly’s Country Cooking; and, more recently, La Esperanza Mexican Restaurant and El Mariachi Mexican Restaurant.
Once the buildings were demolished to make way for the new library — amid a global pandemic and several delays — the lot sat vacant.
Efforts to see a new library built continued in the following years, with a contractor eventually secured to manage the project. A rendering of the new facility was released in February 2024, a month after new issues arose.
During the January 2024 meeting of the Knox County Fiscal Court, officials were confronted by a community member asking about the project’s approval status under Senate Bill 167, a 2023 law requiring Fiscal Court approval for construction projects costing $1 million or more. At the time, estimates for the library were about $14 million. With reserves of about $9 million, the library sought to bond the remaining $4 million to $5 million needed to complete the project.
During the April 2024 Fiscal Court meeting, library officials — accompanied by attorney Suzy Marino, who specializes in commercial litigation — argued the bill’s language was vague. They also noted that Sen. Phillip Weaver, R-Pikeville, the bill’s sponsor, said he believed the Knox library project should have been grandfathered in since it began before the law was introduced.
Over the months following the April meeting, including during a workshop between the Fiscal Court and the library board, efforts appeared to stall. Library construction plans were based on recommendations from state officials regarding the facility’s size in relation to the county’s population.
A review of Knox County’s declining population allowed for a reduction in the facility’s size from 22,285 square feet to 18,840 square feet. The reduction did not affect planned programming, officials told The Mountain Advocate. Many of the changes were cosmetic, including a modified entryway.
The 3,805-square-foot reduction brought the project’s cost to about $10 million, which officials believe can be covered with existing cash reserves, eliminating the need for bonding.
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