A potential change in the location of the future North Hall library has many Clermont residents upset.

At Monday’s work session, Hall County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tom Oliver proposed building the library on the same Nopone Road site as the North Hall park and community center.

The North Hall library — to be funded by $3 million out of SPLOST VI — was originally slated to replace the small library in Clermont.

The current Clermont library is a little more than six miles from the Nopone Road site. The county already has bought about 40 acres in Clermont for the new facility.

Oliver said putting the library on the same site as the community center and park would provide busy families the ability to do many activities in the same place.

“Rather than have a library and a community center, we’re creating an environment that’s a point of destination,” Oliver said. “It’s got opportunities that the Clermont site would not have.”

But Commissioner Steve Gailey, whose North Hall district includes Clermont, said moving the library would be wrong to the residents of Clermont.

“I really think, in my opinion, people were mislead directly in the Clermont area concerning the library,” Gailey said. “If the people had known there wasn’t going to be a library in the Clermont area they probably wouldn’t have supported SPLOST.”

Clermont resident Sandra Cantrell said she was extremely disappointed to hear the proposal to change the location of the library.

“There’s not been any communication with the residents of Clermont, and I feel shorted,” said Cantrell, who frequently uses the library while homes schooling her four children. “It would be a hardship for my family to have to go that far.”

Hall County Library Director Adrian Mixson said the Clermont library is unique in that it is the only one in the county system that is supported by a city.

“The city’s been providing that building for about 30 years now,” Mixson said.

Mixson said the county provides materials for the library while the city of Clermont owns the facility and pays for the utilities and other operational costs.

The Hall County Library Board is holding a special called meeting at 5 p.m. today to discuss the North Hall library following Oliver’s sudden proposal.

“He does not need to meddle in the district commissioner’s districts without first conferring with that commissioner,” Gailey said.

Oliver said another reason to consider relocating the North Hall library is that the Clermont site is at the extreme north end of the county, just a few miles from the White County line.

“It did say a North Hall library (on the SPLOST ballot) and the Nopone site is more centralized to North Hall than Clermont might be,” Oliver said.

Mixson said the library board will meet to make a recommendation to the commissioners, who will vote on the issue at 5 p.m. Thursday.

“In the end the commission’s got to decide what’s best for the greatest number of people,” Mixson said. “The good thing is it shows people are still concerned about their libraries.”