Historical society, library, Afton group request funds

Union County Board of Supervisors met with representatives from various groups Monday to discuss funding requests. The supervisors are researching the 2025 fiscal year budget which begins July 1. No action was taken Monday.

With plans to finish its outdoor pavilion this spring, Gibson Memorial Library Director Danielle Dickinson Thaden requested $35,000, an increase of $1,000 from last year.

In the fall, the library began work on an outdoor pavilion measuring about 24 x 45 feet and placed on the lot south of the library building. Work will continue on the pavilion in the spring. The library, in conjunction with the city, will also create some additional parking spots around the library.

Dickinson Thaden said the library had about 34,000 items used in 2023 by patrons. And additional 10,000 online items were also used. The pavilion may also increase the the library’s event scheduling as cumulative 5,000 people attended library events last year.

Retta Ripperger, representing Afton Development Corporation, requested $10,500 from the county, an increase from $2,500 last year.

Ripperger explained several projects in Afton. The entity wants to plant new bushes in front of the CARE facility, an issue that has been mentioned before to the supervisors. New bushes are estimated at $1,250. Afton is also interested in restoring a mural at the corner of Kansas and Douglas streets. Ripperger said there is another mural in Lorimor that needs restored. Estimated cost for the murals is $5,000.

Afton is wanting interpretive signs and benches along the Afton Lake walking trail. Cost for those items total $1,000. Afton also is interested in a walking and bike lane on one side of Old Highway 34 at the west end of the Paul and Becky Kelly Park. Estimated cost is $1,300.

Total request from the Afton Development Corporation is $10,550.

Dick Anderson and Steve Francis from the Union County Historical Society said the organization has plans to install signs where past villages and communities in the county were once located. Those areas were typically a collection of houses, and maybe a post office and few stores only lasted a few years. The signs would resemble the streams and tributary signs installed throughout the county last year.

Anderson said the society has inventory, or access to inventory, that could be on display in a new building but the society is not in a financial standing to take on a project that could cost up to $500,000. The society has put a new roof on the church and had new sidewalks placed.

The society requested $6,000 from the county.