New library: Elected officials should heed plea for new northern facility

Even the hard-hearted Wayne County commissioners must have been moved by the pleas of a group of children from the northern part of the county for a new library.

A contingent of children and their parents appeared at the commissioners' meeting Tuesday to ask that the county build a new library to replace the two tiny ones now in operation in Fremont and Pikeville.

Anyone who has been to the new Steele Memorial Library in Mount Olive and to the libraries in those towns would be shocked by the disparity. The northern libraries are bare bones affairs while the Mount Olive facility is spacious and modern.

To be sure, Mount Olive had some advantages in constructing its library. It already had a building in place, and it benefited greatly from a private campaign to raise part of the necessary funding.

Perhaps residents of the northern portion of Wayne should consider a similar campaign. And sending those children to appear before the town boards in Fremont and Pikeville wouldn't be a bad idea, either. It seems commissioners are willing to help but the two towns can't agree on a site.

Published in Editorials on July 8, 2016 9:42 AM