Ag Building back in business in Breaux Bridge

The new state-of-the-art library is still a work in progress but its next-door neighbor is back up and running.
The venerable old red-brick St. Martin Parish Agricultural Building had to sacrifice its meeting room to the new library’s expanded footprint, but in its place is a high-tech auditorium, which is now open for business.
What the architect and contractors did was lop off that part of the Ag Building that contained the meeting room, and which jutted northeast-ward, parallel with Courthouse Street and toward the old library building. Then they rebuilt the space at a right-angle, jutting northwest, parallel with North Main.
Demolition began late December 2013 and continued into early part of January 2014.
The new wing of the Ag Building is 1,400 square feet of which 1,200 is configured as an auditorium with a SmartBoard interactive flat technology screen; wi-fi, a high-tech lectern commanding a ceiling mounted projector and cable TV connections as well as the standard sound system. There will also be recessed lighting on a rheostat as well as indirect fluorescent fixtures and upgraded acoustical ceilings.
The auditorium can seat a maximum of some 75 people – or as many as 30 with chairs and tables.
Still under construction next door is a modern 12,558 square-foot library to replace the 4,108-square-foot structure opened in 1956. Designed by Breaux Bridge architect Glenn Angelle, the new building library will feature brick and roof colors similar to that of the Ag Building but with modern touches to give the library a fresh look and a highly functional interior design.
Meanwhile, the library’s temporary home is in the Park Plaza Shopping Center near Winn Dixie off Rees Street.
Charlar Brew, library director for the parish, said this project shows what can be accomplished when government bodies work together. The new Breaux Bridge Library is being built through the collaborative efforts of Parish President Guy Cormier and the St. Martin Parish Council, Breaux Bridge Mayor Jack Dale Delhomme and the Breaux Bridge City Council, architect Glenn Angelle and the St. Martin Parish Library Board of Control, Brew said.