Putnam Receives $1.9 Million Library Grant

Putnam County has received $1.9 million from the state to expand and add new technology to its Cookeville library branch.

County Mayor Randy Porter said the extra space will feature new computers with high-speed internet available for the public to use. Porter said there will also be resources available to teach people how to use the computers for various tasks such as writing a resume or accessing online healthcare.

“Everything we do involves a computer or cell phone or internet,” Porter said. “And we want to make sure that folks are able to take advantage of all those things that are out there. And so being able to come and learn at the library, have someone help them do it, I think it’s going to be a huge deal.”

Porter said the addition should not have any effect on the current interior of the building while the work is underway. Porter said the county expects to start taking bids for the project in March.

“Hopefully construction will start early, late spring, somewhere in that neighborhood,” Porter said. “And I think it would be no more than a twelve-month job. We’d be hoping to have it finished by March or April of the next year.”

Porter said the county was one of the first awarded with the grant because the application was done so well. Porter said the county is adding the computers and supporting services to the library because it was part of the requirements to receive the grant at all.

“I think sometimes folks think the library, does anybody go there anymore?” Porter said. “The number of people that (go) to our library keep increasing year over year and a lot of folks use it. A lot of folks live out in rural parts of the community and in the region that maybe don’t have high speed internet.”

Porter said the expansion is sorely needed as the library was built in the 1970s and the county has since outgrown it. Porter said the grant comes from the Tennessee Broadband Connected Program.