By Rupert Howell
First Regional Library representatives including Sardis librarian Charlene Bradford approached Sardis city officials seeking $13,653 in assistance for their upcoming budget during Tuesday’s meeting of the board of mayor and aldermen

First Regional board member Barbara Evans noted that a tutoring program had been so successful in Sardis that it will be expanded to other libraries within First Regional’s district.
Bradford offered statistics that stated 241 students participated in a program when teamed with McClean Institute and Americorps volunteers that provided one-on-one tutoring to grades K-2 and was then expanded to grads 3-5.

Also Bradford told the Sardis board, “You would be amazed at parents and grandparents that brought 436 children to the library for the summer reading program.”

Evans noted that many adults also used the local library especially taking advantage of computers and internet services for research, making resumes and applying for jobs.
“These computers were used 13,200 times last year,” Evans told the Sardis board.

She also mentioned that the library may have an impact on the local economy stating that 786 out-of-area people used the Sardis Library last year.

Bradford stated the library had 1,157 patrons in one month and as recent as June has 1,113 patrons.

Aldermen assured Evans and Bradford that they would take look further at their request for funding when proposing a budget in coming weeks and took the matter under advisement.