The Oconee County Library Board of Trustees is considering three proposals for artwork at the Oconee County Library in Wire Park in Watkinsville.
Megan Weatherford, who works with relief carving, printmaking, stenciling and collage, has proposed a series of illustrations carved into recycled book pages for inside the library and a painted mural on a wall outside the Library.
Sculptors Leonard Mark Piha and Lawrence Stueck have proposed a work outside the library that features spinning, dancing, floating books, pencils and letters attached to a tangled thicket of arched steel posts that rise above four benches.
Muralist and artist Will Eskridge is proposing a storybook-style mural that follows a curious racoon as it dives into one book after another, each one unlocking a new world of adventure.
Weatherford and Piha appeared before the Library Board at its meeting last month to present and answer questions about their proposals, both of which will require approval of Wire Park.
Also at its July meeting, the Library Board approved a Fiscal Year 2026 budget showing a 15.6 percent increase in spending, balanced with a transfer of $106,893 from reserves.
The Board also made a series of minor changes to its Constitution and Bylaws, including changing the starting and ending date of appointments to the Board but opting to keep the terms of office at five years.
Weatherford Proposal
Board Member Daphne Norton said at the beginning of the presentations at the July 15 meeting that the Board’s Art Committee had met several times and had asked the three artists who submitted proposals to appear before the full Board to provide details of their plans.
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| Weatherford 7/15/2025 |
Norton said “at this time, the Art Committee does not have a specific recommendation because we are still having some questions being answered by Wire Park related to what is actually possible outdoors and what is approved. So the indoor work we would completely approve, but anything that's outdoors, Wire Park also has to approve it.”
Branch Manager James Mitchell said on Friday (Aug. 8), that those discussions have not been completed.
Weatherford said she is an Oconee County resident and "my artistic specialties are relief carving, printmaking, stenciling and collage. And in this proposal, I've included a little bit of all of that.”
“I really want to highlight how the library serves our community and the difference it makes,” she said.
“My design approach is collaborative,” she said. “I would love to work with stakeholders to expand upon and tailor this idea if I were selected.”
“I do like to embody positivity of my designs,” she said. “I like to create visuals that are interesting, but not overwhelming, I hope. And I'd love to use texture and play with light and depth in my work.”
Weatherford listed a number of possible locations for her art inside the library as well as for the wall outside of the stairs beneath the patio.
Piha And Stueck Presentation
Piha, who lives in Athens, made the presentation to the Board at the Oconee County Library on behalf of himself and Watkinsville sculptor Stueck, whom the Board approved in January to create the sculpture currently outside the library showing maps of the U.S., Georgia, and Oconee County.
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| Piha 7/15/2025 |
“The concept behind this piece was we wanted something super playful and fun to look at and that moves with the wind,” Piha said.
“We both were using the word thicket,” he said, describing the internal branches of the sculpture. “Like if you're out in nature and you see a growth of trees that kind of are in a conglomerate, you know, kind of in a certain area, that's where we were coming from.”
“Each one of these objects on top, they turn with the wind,” Piha said, referring to the model he had brought with him “We haven't worked out the kinks...We know it will work. This is just a concept piece.”
Piha said he and Stueck want to create something that “would just be unusual for the library scene, and also for the sculpture world,” Piha said, “because you don't really see crazy stuff that looks like this.”
“And we thought it would be really just flat out fun to look at,” he said.
Objects at the top of the thicket would include representations of books by famous authors and characters from the children’s literature,” he said.
Eskridge Proposal, Funding
Eskridge did not attend the July 15 meeting of the Board, but he described his work in his proposal as “a vibrant, storybook-style mural” that follows the exploration of a racoon.
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| Eskridge Submitted Sketches |
“Designed for children’s and teens section,” he wrote, “this mural celebrates reading as both a playful escape and a powerful tool for discovery.”
“The main partition separating the children and teen section would be the focal point and feature a large and welcoming racoon reading a book” he said. “The book is open as images of the raccoon in different setting explode from the page.”
“This imagery features the raccoon multiple times all along the pillars and tops sections as it goes on various adventures,” according to the proposal.
Weatherford’s submitted budget is for $15,050, Piha and Stueck budgeted $20,000, and Eskridge’s budget is $14,250.
Branch manager Mitchell said the Board has $20,000 from the city of Watkinsville that is earmarked “specifically for art.”
Stueck’s existing piece at the library, labeled “You Are Here,” is one of five new artboards funded by the City of Watkinsville in partnership with the Oconee County Cultural Arts Foundation (OCAF).
The Oconee County Library was asked to approve the artwork because it is located at the front corner of the building, but no Library funds were used for the work.
Budget
The Fiscal Year 2026 Budget approved by the Board shows a $525,300 contribution from the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, up by $15,300 (3 percent) from the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget.
The Oconee County Board of Education will contribute $31,000, the same as last year, and the City of Watkinsville will contribute $30,127, up by $4,275 (14 percent) from last year.
Bogart is contributing $7,000, the same as in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
The approved Fiscal Year 2025 revenue budget includes $6,368 in state salary supplement up from $6,008 (6 percent) in Fiscal Year 2025, and $32,484 from the state for materials, up by $8,981 (28 percent) from the just completed Fiscal Year.
The $760,474 budget is balanced with a transfer of $106,893 from the Fund Balance, which stood at $532,479 as of June 30, with $158,612 set aside as reserve to cover three months of operating costs.
Last year, the Board transferred $34,290 from its reserves to balance the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
Major expenditures in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget are for salaries and benefits, at $665,515, up by 13 percent from the year before. Salaries and benefits make up 88 percent of the total budget.
The expenditure budget also includes $27,844 as regional share, or the amount contributed to the Athens Regional Library System, an increase of 7 percent from the year before.
Constitution And Bylaws
The new Constitution and Bylaws adopted by the Board do such bookkeeping tasks as change the address of the Oconee County Library in Watkinsville.
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| Executive Committee Meeting 7/7/2025 Norris, At Right |
The changes also remove a description of the position of treasurer, which the Oconee County Library Board of Trust does not have, and indicate that the Branch Manager, rather than the Board secretary shall notify the appointing authority of vacancies on the Board.
The Board of Commissioners appoints nine members to the Board, while the City of Watkinsville and City of Bogart appoint one member each.
The Board of Education appoints two members.
Beth McIntyre, executive director of the Athens Regional Library System effective March 17, had asked the Board to update the two documents, and specifically asked that the terms of office of Board members be changed from five to three years.
She asked that Board members not be allowed to serve more than four three-year terms.
At present, Board Member can serve a maximum of two five-year terms.
At a meeting of the Library Board executive committee on July 7, Board Chair Rubielen Norris she felt the proposed changes “did not best suit this library.”
Video
The video below is of meeting of the Library Board of Trustees on July 15 at the Oconee County Library in Wire Park.
Weatherford began her presentation on her proposed art at 2:49 in the video.
Piha began his presentation at 10:44 in the video.
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