Officials with the Georgetown County Library system hope to enter into talks with Coastal Carolina University about the fate of its Waccamaw Higher Education Center.
     A report released earlier this year on the state of affairs at the university, recommended the center, in Litchfield, be closed. A decision on whether to follow that advice should be made by the end of the year, said David DeCenzo, the university president.
     A committee has been appointed to work with DeCenzo on studying the recommendations. Its decisions will then go before the university trustees.
     The Georgetown County Library Board was apprised of the situation at a meeting last week. The library recently secured space for a new Waccamaw Neck branch on Willbrook Boulevard, across the street from the higher education center.
     Library officials were looking forward to a close relationship with the center, including shared funding and usage, once the new library is built, said Dwight McInvaill, the library director.
     “I think we need to consider a response somehow,” he said. “We were very pleased with the possibility of collaboration in the future.”
     He called the center and its lifelong learning program a valuable asset to the community.
     “We could go to County Council and maybe ask them to contact the university,” said board member Sandy Gresham. She raised the possibility of asking the county to contribute funds to help keep the center open.
     Coastal Carolina pays about $300,000 a year for rent and maintenance on the property, according to staff at the center. The money the lifelong learning program brings in isn’t enough to cover the costs of operations.
     McInvaill said he doubts the county would be able to put money into keeping the center open right now.
     “We’ve been told this year everything is tight, but we all made cuts and squeaked through,” he said. “Next year is supposed to be even worse.”
     The board decided to have its chairman, Virgil Grayson, work with McInvaill to write a letter to DeCenzo in support of keeping the center open. The letter is to mention benefits a location near the new library would have for the university and the lifelong learning program.
     It will also request a meeting between the university and the library.
     Construction of the new Waccamaw library is scheduled to take place in 2013 and 2014, according to the county’s capital improvement plan.
     A new Georgetown library and a branch in Sampit are scheduled to be funded ahead of Waccamaw, but McInvaill said he plans to ask that Waccamaw be moved up as much as possible.
     The Georgetown library is to be funded in 2012 and 2013 and the Sampit library in 2013.
     The board considered making the letter public, but agreed to give the university a chance to respond first. They don’t want the university to feel it is under attack, they said.
     If the center is closed, the lifelong learning programs that operate out of the facility will continue, said Linda Ketron, director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and director of the Waccamaw Higher Edudation Center. She has already started looking for other locations on Waccamaw Neck for the program.
Jackie R. Broach / Coastal Observer