Gibson slated for new library

Plans to replace the Gibson Branch of the Terrebonne Library System with a new facility progressed last week as the system engaged in a tentative land-use agreement with the parish’s school board.

The board by a 7-0 vote agreed to designate up to one acre of property at the site of Gibson Elementary for the new building. The agreement still needs council approval, which oversees library property, said Mary Cosper LeBoeuf, the system’s director.

An estimate of the project’s cost was not immediately available. LeBoeuf said the envisioned 2,500-square-foot building would give the branch needed space for expanding its services and technological infrastructure while relocating it to an area more highly trafficked.

Based on historical data, library usage at branches that undergo expansion or renovation can increase by up to 4 percent, LeBouef said.

“The community deserves it,” LeBoeuf said.

The current building, roughly 1,400 square feet in size, was built 29 years ago. It sits adjacent to the elementary school, facing South Bayou Black Drive, and is sometimes mistakenly seen as a school library.

The new building would be at the opposite end of the property and face La. Highway 182, LeBouef said.

Terrebonne’s library system is funded by a quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters in 1998. Its annual operating and maintenance budget is approximately $4 million, LeBouef said last year.