The Logan County Library Board will take the next year or so to garner funding for a new library to sit on recently purchased land in Russellville.

Library director Linda Kompanik said while the board does have a building fund - of about $25,000 - it’s nowhere near the amount needed to build the $3.5 million library. So, the library board will be looking at grants, fundraising and donations to complete the 20,000-square-foot building, she said.

“We are not trying to acquire any more debt than necessary,” she said. “It also could help if every citizen asks their legislators to place $2.5 million into the state’s library budget ... libraries across that state would benefit, ours too.”

Kompanik said the new library, slated to be erected in two to three years, will sit on 51/2 acres of land on Armory Drive which was purchased for $125,000 using the library’s building fund reserve.

“According to state standards, we needed three to five acres,” she said. “It’s good for our needs.”

The land was acquired from Ismal and Antonio Leon, brothers who own Sol Azteca Mexican restaurant in Russellville.

The library currently sits on Sixth Street - two streets away from the main road that runs through Russellville. Kompanik said the library had been in its current building for 40 years.

“Our traffic increased about 160 percent, and people are frustrated by parking,” she said. “We don’t have a meeting room any more, no distinction between the children’s section and young adult sections, the building isn’t (compliant with federal disabled-access laws) and it’s owned by the city. And we are landlocked in a historic neighborhood.”

The library currently houses adult education, and the extra space from the new library will help to accommodate them and the 500 people coming into the library a day, she said. This is also a chance for the library to own its building and better serve the needs of the community.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “This has been my dream since I got here.”

During the search for a new location, Russellville Middle School became an option the city wanted the library board to look into, Kompanik said. But “it was never an option for us,” she said.

“The school system still owes a substantial debt on that building that they would have to retire before relinquishing that land to us,” she said. “It would cost more for us to demolish it. It was going to be more than $200,000 for us to tear down that building and get the land ready.”

The acquired site, she said, would need only minimum preparation.

In a new library, visitors could expect meeting space, quite study rooms, program rooms for children, adult education space, a computer lab and an expanded genealogy room.

“I was on the radio the other day and they asked ‘What was the best thing about the new library?’ and I said parking,” she said. “It’s been a source of contention every day.”

The new library will be within walking distance from Stevenson Elementary School and the new park that is being planned by the city of Russellville.

“It’s an excellent location for us,” Kompanik said.