The Brundidge City Council approved the plans for the town’s new library Tuesday, clearing the way for construction to begin soon.

The plans call for a 3,100 square foot facility, something the library board was pleased with.

“This is the plan that the library board came up with, with a few minor tweaks,” said Brundidge Mayor Jimmy Ramage.

Councilman Lawrence Bowden also said the library board should be content with the plans for the new facility.

“I think they’ll be happy with that,” Bowden said. “They were trying to make the building smaller because of money, but if they can get these plans for the right price, they’ll be real happy.”

The cost of the building was an issue throughout the planning process, with the final cost of the building estimated to be around $233,000.

Ramage said the final costs should be lower than that.

“That’s just a contract price,” Ramage said. “We ought to be able to come in cheaper than that since we are going to buy the supplies and furnish the labor.”

Ramage said the approval of the plans was urgent because construction needed to begin soon for the benefit of both the facility to be built and the one already in place.

“We need to get rolling on this because every week we wait, we get closer to winter,” Ramage said. “We need to get this foundation set before the bad weather rolls in. We also need to get the stress off of that floor at the existing facility. That building is not built to hold books. We’ll still use the existing building for meeting rooms, but we’ll use the new facility for books.”

The plans presented at the meeting were just for the outside of the building, but plans for the inside should be made soon.

“The library board approved this plan in principle,” Ramage said. “I think they’re going to have another meeting next week with the architect to make plans for the inside.”

In other business, the council also voted to sign a letter of commitment to be part of PowerSouth’s application for stimulus funding for smart grid equipment.

“We could use the money for meters and other smart grid stuff to help citizens manage their bills better,” Ramage said.