Dougherty County holds grand opening for new event center

The event center is connected to the Northwest Public Library on Old Dawson Road.
Quinlan Parker,

ALBANY, Ga. – If  you’re looking an event space in Dougherty County no need to look further than the library.

Once known as Rhodes furniture store turned storage space for the county is now an event center that has multi purpose use. Gail Evans, Dougherty County Public Library Director explains how it all come into fruition.

“The previous library director and board of decided why not to prepare this even space for Dougherty County citizens. So they took the 5,000 square feet that we’re in now, renovated it and created this awesome event space.” said Evans.

District 6 County Commissioner Anthony Jones says this is a game changer for the entire community.

“This is the crown jewel of all of our libraries and it’s important because we have libraries here for people and people us libraries, children use libraries. This is going to increase the quality of life for a lot of members throughout our county, district, and city.” said Jones.

Commissioner Jones says it critical for the community to know where their tax dollars are going.

“I mean it’s a state fo the art building. 2 million dollar project, that’s what we have here; a 2 million dollar project. So certainly if you spend 2 million dollars, I want our tax payers to see that they got their monies worth.” said Jones.

Here’s a breakdown of costs on the event center:

  • The parking lot expansion was budgeted at $400,000, which was funded by State MRR grant, SPLOST 6 and 7. This was approved back in November of 2019 by county commissioners.
  • The state then award a $2 million Major Repair and Renovation (MRR) grantor the renovation of the Northwest Library which included the event center.
  • Other renovations included the local history room, teen maker space, training room, additional study spaces, used book shop and children’s activity room.

If you would like to schedule a tour or have any additional questions, you can contact Rod Davis at (229) 420-3243 or by email at rdavis@docolib.org

Below is a copy of the guidelines and policy for the Library Event Center along with a reservation request form.

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