Officials with the Lincoln-Lawrence-Franklin Regional Library System visited the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to tout the public library and officially introduce Katrina Castilaw as the assistant director.

Director Henry Ledet made the introductions to the board Monday although Castilaw came to Brookhaven from the Copiah-Jefferson library system in November.

Castilaw attended Copiah-Lincoln Community College and then studied computer science at Mississippi College. She received her library sciences degree from the University of Southern Mississippi.

“She’s really an asset,” Ledet said.

Celeste Carty, library board chairman, told supervisors about some of the improvements at the Brookhaven main branch. “We should all be so proud of our library,” she said.

A dedicated teen area has been created and patrons also have access to ebooks and magazines online from home. A computer station is available for patrons’ use and Wi-Fi is accessible on personal devices. Carty said some people use the Wi-Fi from the comfort of their vehicles, parked outside the library.

Genealogists can use two popular resources free of charge for research — ancestry.com and Heritage Quest, she said.

An open house at the library is set for Sept. 15 at 5 p.m.

Carty requested the usual 1 mill for its budget “as we’ve received in the past.”

The library system operates with about a $925,000 yearly budget. In years past, the budget has been around $1 million.

She said the library had been cut $25,000 on the state level, but had received a grant that would offset that loss. She said the library doesn’t need any new equipment and also has a new van to use.

“The library is just in wonderful shape,” she said.

However, she did ask supervisors to stripe the new parking lot they recently completed. The library will be used as a polling place in the next election, she said.

County engineer Ryan Holmes said it would cost about $800 to stripe.

District 4 Supervisor Eddie Brown made the motion for supervisors to share in the expense of striping the parking lot, “especially if we’re using it for voting now. We don’t want the hassle of people blocking folks in.”

“If we’ve got the money, I’m all for it,” District 3 Supervisor Nolan Williamson said.

Supervisors voted in favor of completing the striping project in the parking lot.

Lincoln County Circuit Clerk Tillmon Bishop said he recently had the occasion to use the facility. “Believe it or not, I actually went to the library to look for a book and I was really impressed,” he told supervisors.

He said the library is a “strong part of the economic development puzzle.”

The Lincoln-Lawrence-Franklin Regional Library has branches in Brookhaven, Monticello, Meadville and New Hebron.