The Rincon branch at 105 W 17th St is closed Thursday, Oct. 29, for a regional staff training day. The region doing the training is new to Rincon. Until July 1, the branch belonged to Live Oak Public Libraries, the system Effingham County had been part of for more than 80 years. It now belongs to the Statesboro Regional Public Libraries.
The switch moved decisions about the Rincon library closer to home, and that change is already showing up in the branch's hours, its programs, and a plan for a new building on Fort Howard Road. On Nov. 3, Effingham voters will weigh in on whether that building gets funded.
The hours came back first
The change patrons noticed first was the schedule. Beginning in May, Rincon and Springfield ran on 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, with no Saturday hours. Before the handover, Assistant County Manager Michael King told the Statesboro Herald that the plan was to go back to regular hours on July 1. The branch page on the Statesboro Regional site shows that it did.
| May through June 2026 | Since July 1, 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Saturday | Closed | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
| Weekly hours | 20 | 44 |
More than twice the hours brings back the times that matter to working households: weekday afternoons until 6 and Saturday mornings. Public computers have a two-hour limit, and computers and Wi-Fi shut off 15 minutes before closing, so on a weekday the cutoff is 5:45 p.m.
Your old card needs one trip to the desk
Library cards belong to a regional system, so a Live Oak card did not move over automatically. The branch page asks existing patrons to come in person to reactivate. Before the switch, King put it simply in the Statesboro Herald: "You just have to swap out and get a new card."
The branch page lists who qualifies:
- Georgia residents get a free card with a current ID.
- People who go to school, own property or work in Georgia also qualify, though they may need to show proof.
- Children can get a card at any age. A parent or guardian shows ID and signs for anyone under 18.
- Eligible patrons from out of state pay $25 a year.
PINES borrowing still works, so books from libraries across Georgia can still be requested to Rincon, and GALILEO is still available. Georgia State Librarian Julie Walker told the Herald that patrons "are not going to see a whole lot of difference," but some digital offerings can vary from one system to the next. The Statesboro Regional digital resources page lists Libby, The Palace Project, eRead Kids, GALILEO, Mango Languages and Beanstack. Hoopla appears on Live Oak's e-book page and Kanopy on its video page, and neither is on that list. If those apps were part of your routine, ask about them when you reactivate your card.
The same visit is a good time to note the service fees. They matter most to anyone who still uses the library as a home office:
- Black-and-white copies cost $0.25 a page and color copies $0.50.
- Scanning costs $0.10 a page.
- Faxing costs $1.00 for the first page sent, $1.00 for each page after that, and $1.00 a page to receive.
Staff ask that print jobs be emailed ahead of time when possible, to [email protected]. The branch phone number is (912) 826-2222.
Two votes in a system of eight
The longer-term change is about who has a say. Rincon is now one of eight branches in the Statesboro Regional system. The others are Springfield, Claxton-Evans County, Metter-Candler County, Pembroke-Bryan County, Richmond Hill-Bryan County, Swainsboro-Emanuel County and Statesboro. That puts Rincon in the same system as the Richmond Hill library just across the Ogeechee.
Each member county has two seats and two votes on the regional board. Under Live Oak, Effingham and Liberty counties had two votes apiece and Chatham County had eight. King told the Herald that the new arrangement gives each county more room to shape programs and services around local needs.
Regional Library Director Caroline Johnson described how that works at the branch level: "We really like to work with each manager there to kind of see what their community wants." Story times, craft programs and book clubs are continuing, and the system plans to use surveys and community feedback to choose what comes next. The Rincon branch page links to a patron survey for that purpose.
The October calendar shows what a rebuilt schedule looks like. On the Rincon filter of the regional calendar, Storytime ran Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. every week of the month. Around it were a Saturday Family Game Day, a Lego Club, a Kids History Club, a Pumpkin Parade, an STEM activity, a Teens and Tweens Craft and an Adult Craft Hour where patrons made canning-ring pumpkins. The branch also closed Oct. 1 through 3 for renovation. November and December events will appear on the same filtered calendar.
The building on 17th Street is the harder problem
New hours and programs arrived within weeks of the switch. A new building takes land, money and years. When the city announced a land purchase in July, Mayor Kevin Exley told the Effingham Herald that the current Rincon library is the fourth most-visited in the regional system, no longer meets the community's needs, and is harder to reach on foot than city leaders would like.
He also pointed to the lack of covered outdoor space for summer reading programs:
"If it rains, those guys have to go find shelter somewhere."
The City of Rincon paid $2 million for about 15 acres along Fort Howard Road, running from the Lost Plantation entrance to Lisa Street. About four acres between the Lost Plantation and Williamsburg subdivision entrances are set aside for a new county library. The other 11 acres or so are going to the Rincon Economic Development Initiative Board, which will recruit businesses for the walkable, downtown-style district the city wants along Fort Howard Road. "This, with the addition of some more sidewalks, could get everybody in the city walking through to this library," Exley said.
Under the agreement, the city sells the library parcel to Effingham County, and the county builds the library. In July, Exley said planning could start while that sale went through. He said the library board "needs to be 100% involved" in the design, and he asked the public to come out and take part. As for the current building, he said the city has talked about using it temporarily for police operations and eventually folding the property into a larger municipal complex.
What Nov. 3 has to do with it
In July, funding had not been settled. Commissioner Phil Kieffer said the county was proposing $16 million for library infrastructure, enough to get design started.
The money question is now on the ballot. At the Effingham County Chamber of Commerce's State of the County luncheon on Oct. 1, County Manager Tim Callanan laid out a proposed six-year SPLOST program that would continue the existing one-penny sales tax. The county projects it would bring in about $200 million, with $50 million for countywide projects and $150 million split among the county and its cities by population. According to the Effingham Herald's report, the project list includes building a new Rincon library and possibly a second library on the south side of the county. The proposal would also let the county borrow against future SPLOST revenue so projects can be built sooner.
The SPLOST renewal is one of two county referendums on the Nov. 3 ballot. The other would authorize a Local Homeowners Incentive Adjustment Grant, a new tool for the county's property tax relief plan. The Effingham Herald's explainer covers both measures side by side. The library is one line on a list that also includes Atlas Park, Sand Hill Park, roads, public safety facilities and a new health department building. In July, the next step on the Fort Howard site was the city's sale of the four-acre parcel to the county, with public design input to follow.
After the Oct. 29 training day, the branch reopens Friday, Oct. 30, at 10 a.m. Bring an ID if your card still says Live Oak, and pick up the survey while you're there.
If you live near Fort Howard Road and want to know how a planned library and a downtown-style district between Lost Plantation and Lisa Street could affect your home, the team at Robin Lance Realty can walk you through it with local numbers, at no cost. Get Your Home Value.
