FARMVILLE – Town Council voted Wednesday to enter into an option agreement to sell the former Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library Building at 217 West Third Street for $225,000.

Proceeds from the sale would be put into an escrow account for use by the library, now prospering at its new location adjacent to Wilck's Lake, to purchase equipment.

Town Manager Gerald Spates said the option agreement is being entered into with Dr. Daniel Kingsley, a Farmville optometrist.

“We've got an offer for the old library building to purchase the library building for $225,000,” Spates said publicly following council's closed session.

“The library board has agreed to it. The County. Both of these were verbally,” Spates said. “So council will vote.”

The vote was unanimous.

Prior to the vote, Town Attorney Donald C. Blessing clarified that “it's entering into the option to sell.”

When asked with whom the Town was entering into the agreement, Blessing said, “I was not told that we could not reveal the name.”

Spates then said, “It's Dr. Kingsley…the eye doctor.”

Dr. Kingsley told The Herald on Thursday that the option agreement had not yet been signed and that he preferred to wait until it had been signed to comment.

The library's director Peggy Epperson could easily see the benefits of $225,000 in an escrow account, as agreed when the deed was gifted to the Town last October, for future equipment purchases.

“We are very pleased to have the matter settled,” she told The Herald on Wednesday afternoon.

Pleased to have someone who will use the building so it will “not sit there empty,” she said.

“Thrilled to death.”

As for $225,000 in an escrow account, Ms. Epperson noted one possible future use-47 computers.

All 47 of the computers were purchased at the same time, 37 for the public and 10 for library staff, and so they would likely need replacing all at the same time some day.

And those computers, along with everything else at the library, continue to attract thousands of users.

During the first full year, the new library location attracted 94,000 visitors.

There are, as well, 18,000 registered borrowers, Ms. Epperson noted, in a county with a population of approximately 23,000.

The library, in fact, has just begun a new service-E-books.

For Nook, Kindle, iPads and other hand-held devices, as well as downloadable on home computers.

The library's new building was constructed jointly through funding from both the Town of Farmville and Prince Edward County.

The decision, and the result, is extremely popular among the people those elected officials serve.