Columbia County is one step closer to creating a single county regional library system.
During the Community and Emergency Services Committee meeting on Tuesday, the committee approved moving forward with a resolution to withdraw from the Greater Clarks Hills Regional Library System (GCHRL), create the Columbia County Regional Library System and to dissolve the Columbia County Library Advisory Board. Columbia County with leave the GCHRL system on Dec. 31, 2025. The library advisory board is dissolved effective immediately. The members on the GCHRL board will remain on that board until Dec. 31, 2025.
“As part of the transition from the Greater Clarks Hill Regional Library System to the Columbia County Library System, the Columbia County Library Advisory Board is being dissolved effective immediately to streamline governance and eliminate overlap, since the regional board is the sole board authorized to make decisions under state law. While the new system won’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2026, patrons still have the full ability to go before the current regional library board between now and the end of the year to share input, raise concerns, and be heard,” said Cassidy Harris, public relations manager for Columbia County in a statement.
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The Columbia County Regional Library System will be comprised of the three libraries in Columbia County, which are in Evans (main branch), Harlem and Grovetown. The new regional library system will have five board members to be named later.
These moves come after the Columbia County Board of Commissioners voted in May to leave the GCHRL system and create a single-county system.
There were no comments by committee members during the meeting Tuesday, but Karin Parham, CEO of the Freedom to Read Coalition of Columbia County, spoke about the resolution during public comment.
“It kind of feels a little bit preliminary to dissolve the Columbia County Library Advisory Board considering we haven’t named anybody to be on that new regional library board,” Parham said. “What this does is that it cancels six month’s worth of meetings where you could receive public feedback. In fact, I know July 8, I know somebody who took off to speak at July 8. So, are all of those meetings now cancelled?”
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Community Services Director John Luton replied that yes, the library advisory board meetings will be cancelled for the rest of the year. Parham then asked where community members could give public feedback and if it were just at commission meetings.
Chairman Doug Duncan said yes, at the moment, citizens can voice their concerns at commission meetings. Community members can also request to speak at the GCHRL meetings, which are once a quarter unless a called meeting is held. Information on those meetings can be found at gchrl.org.
“I just want you to know that just because you dissolved that advisory board it’s not like my organization, it’s not like anyone who is speaking out against the guidelines, we’re not going to go anywhere. We’re still going to be showing up, we’re still going to speak out against it,” Parham said.
The committee approved moving the item to the consent agenda for the full board of commissioners.
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