The Laurel City Council Tuesday morning voiced its support of the Laurel-Jones County Library’s mold abatement program.

“If we’re going to continue to have a library, we need to make up our minds to support it,” Mayor Melvin Mack told council members during a public works meeting that followed the regular council meeting.

Library director Mary Louise Breland asked the Jones County Board of Supervisors Monday morning for its support, and asked the board to take the lead in solving the problem. Board president Andy Dial said the board would “see what it could do.”

Breland made the same request of the council during its Tuesday meeting. “We ask the council to take over the project,” she said. “We appreciate any help you can give us. We want the city to do it for us.”

New estimates on a new air conditioning/dehumidification system are needed, because pre-Hurricane Katrina estimates were $134,000. “It’s probably 35 percent more now,” she said.

The mold is in the upstairs portion of the library, jointly owned by the city and the county, and is especially a problem in the genealogical section and the Mason Room, where the Council of Garden Clubs of Laurel and Jones County meets. Breland feels the city and the county should share equally in correcting the problem due to the joint ownership of the building.

“I have no problem with doing our share,” council member Tony Wheat said. “I would like to see what the new figure is going to be.”

Council member Tony Thaxton said he is “anxious to get something done” about the mold. “I’m 100 percent in favor of the city doing what it can.”

Council member Manuel Jones also expressed his support of combating the mold problem but reminded the council that an additional one mill was designated to the library three to four years ago. “We did that so they wouldn’t have to come to the council every year at budget time requesting funds,” he said.

City Administrator Gary Suddith said the mill generates approximately $131,000 annually.

The council voted to authorize an application process to the Mississippi Development Authority for a $3,000,000 loan for the expansion of the coil winding division of Howard Industries. The expansion is expected to create 173 new jobs. The addition of a 120,000 square foot building will consolidate the coil winding division. The funds are designated for economic development use only.

The council also approved the appointment of Chris Wilson to the board of directors of the Economic Development Authority of Jones County.