BUFFALO, W.Va. -- The Buffalo Library is falling down.

Light fixtures are breaking, and the floor is starting to rot. 

"It's getting to be kind of an eyesore," said Buffalo Mayor Kenny Tucker.

It's time the community got a new library, Tucker said.

Library officials and members of Kanawha Gateway, a tourism development organization, will kick off a fundraising campaign July 1 at the gazebo in Buffalo to raise up to $100,000 for a new building for the Putnam County community.

The current library is in a 750-square-foot trailer purchased and brought to Buffalo by the federal government in the mid-1980s to replace bookmobiles, said Jackie Cheney, Putnam County libraries director.

The traveling libraries were replaced with trailers or outpost libraries in communities that agreed to supply a permanent structure eventually, Cheney said.

"Of course, it's taken a little longer than expected, and outlived the life expectancy of the building," Cheney said.

The new building will resemble a one-room schoolhouse, and will sit on the same lot as the current library. At about 1,200 square feet, the new structure would provide much needed extra space.

"I don't have much room to move around," said Becky Hamilton, Buffalo Library branch manager.

As new books come in, Hamilton has to weed out old volumes to make room. The library also has only two computers.

Lowell Wilks, project coordinator with Kanawha Gateway, is working with the Putnam Career Technical Center in Eleanor to have students build the walls for the library and transport them to Buffalo.

Tech Center students also helped build the new library in Eleanor, which opened last summer.

Wilks said school officials have agreed to help with the project, but still need to get approval from their board to proceed.

He estimates the foundation, roof, electrical work and other features will cost about $100,000 to put in place.

Since Buffalo owns the building, the town is responsible for any new construction, as was the case in Eleanor, Cheney said.

BUFFALO, W.Va. -- The Buffalo Library is falling down.

Light fixtures are breaking, and the floor is starting to rot. 

"It's getting to be kind of an eyesore," said Buffalo Mayor Kenny Tucker.

It's time the community got a new library, Tucker said.

Library officials and members of Kanawha Gateway, a tourism development organization, will kick off a fundraising campaign July 1 at the gazebo in Buffalo to raise up to $100,000 for a new building for the Putnam County community.

The current library is in a 750-square-foot trailer purchased and brought to Buffalo by the federal government in the mid-1980s to replace bookmobiles, said Jackie Cheney, Putnam County libraries director.

The traveling libraries were replaced with trailers or outpost libraries in communities that agreed to supply a permanent structure eventually, Cheney said.

"Of course, it's taken a little longer than expected, and outlived the life expectancy of the building," Cheney said.

The new building will resemble a one-room schoolhouse, and will sit on the same lot as the current library. At about 1,200 square feet, the new structure would provide much needed extra space.

"I don't have much room to move around," said Becky Hamilton, Buffalo Library branch manager.

As new books come in, Hamilton has to weed out old volumes to make room. The library also has only two computers.

Lowell Wilks, project coordinator with Kanawha Gateway, is working with the Putnam Career Technical Center in Eleanor to have students build the walls for the library and transport them to Buffalo.

Tech Center students also helped build the new library in Eleanor, which opened last summer.

Wilks said school officials have agreed to help with the project, but still need to get approval from their board to proceed.

He estimates the foundation, roof, electrical work and other features will cost about $100,000 to put in place.

Since Buffalo owns the building, the town is responsible for any new construction, as was the case in Eleanor, Cheney said.

"[Putnam County Libraries] owns the Hurricane Branch Library and our building in Teays Valley; all three of the other buildings [in Poca, Eleanor and Buffalo] belong to the towns," Cheney said.

The county's library budget is strictly for operational costs for salaries, books and upkeep, Cheney said.

A big portion of funding for libraries in other counties comes from city and municipal business and occupation tax, Cheney said.

"Any time you have big cities, you have a lot more tax-based income," she said. "Putnam does not have a big city and our [Teays Valley] library sits outside a small town." 

Cheney works with an annual budget of about $500,000 from a mix of state, county, school board and town funds, plus money from fines and donations.

Of money that comes into the county from property tax, 80 percent goes to the school board, and 20 percent goes to the County Commission, she said.

With its share, the commission must fund EMS and other essential services.

"Libraries, the health department and parks are considered for what they have left over," she said.

Putnam County's per capita tax for libraries is about $5. This is compared to about $30 in Kanawha County and about $22 in Cabell.

Space and parking is a continual problem for all of the libraries, especially with the summer reading programs, she said.

If a levy were to pass in Putnam County, "it would give us that final cushion of local support that we really need. Putnam really needs, desperately, to have a more comfortable operational budget so we could go for construction funds," she said.

But Putnam County residents are reluctant to vote themselves a tax increase, she said.

Levy requests for libraries have failed in Putnam County in recent years.

A levy for libraries needs 60 percent of the vote to pass. In 2006, a levy request to 58.7 percent of the vote, and in 2007 it received 59.4 percent.

"We were so close," she said.

Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.