With no set plan for funding beyond its first year, the $10 million Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center will open Dec. 4.
The 28,000-square-foot facility was built at 2051 Lower Roswell Road on the site of the former East Marietta Library, which was demolished after 50 years.
Where the old library was is now the entrance and parking space for the Sewell Mill facility and Sewell Park.
Construction also included traffic improvements to Lower Roswell Road east of South Marietta Parkway.
“Community participation is vital for making Sewell Mill a destination for all of Cobb,” said the library’s manager James Mitchell.
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There will be study spaces, recording studios, a conference room, an art gallery, art classrooms, an outdoor amphitheater and a black box theater, the county said.
The library was built with $8 million of special purpose sales tax, or SPLOST, dollars and two million in state funds.
But when the library’s proposed budget reduced, county commissioners approved using $284,000 of one-time monies to cover staffing and operations for the first year.
In September, the commission approved a $405 million budget that included a one-time injection of $21 million.
This all comes after commissioners voted against Chairman Mike Boyce's proposed tax hike in July.
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"The reality is that we have a $10 million investment that this board has known about for years and it's dropped in my lap to fix," Boyce previously said.
But the community will have their $10 million investment running one year for sure.
“We’re opening with great excitement and tremendous energy,” Mitchell said.
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