Beard, Byrnside honored

Two meeting spaces at the Lincoln Parish Library will soon bear the names of a pair of community icons.

The library’s board of control voted unanimously Wednesday to name its conference room after former library board chairman George Byrnside and the large community room near the front door after former Lincoln Parish Police Jury president Jack Beard.

Beard and Byrnside were “instrumental” in bringing the library to its current location on North Trenton Street, which opened in 2004. Former mayor of Ruston Dan Hollingsworth and former parish administrator Richard Durrett made a presentation to the library board proposing the room namings and taking board members through the history of the move.

“Richard and I were observers and involved in the moving of this library to this location,” Hollingsworth said. “We are so proud to have something like this, a beautiful facility that meets the needs of the community.”

At the turn of the century, the police jury, headed by Beard, were planning to expand the library’s previous location on Alabama Avenue. Meanwhile, Byrnside was serving in then-mayor Hollingsworth’s office in addition to leading the library board.

“George struggled day after day looking at those plans (for the library expansion) and the topography that was there,” Hollingsworth said. “He was trying to visualize how it would be to have a subterranean library, because the roof level would be at street level on that lot they had acquired.”

Around the same time, Albertson’s grocery company closed its store located where the library is now. So Hollingsworth asked Byrnside if they could move the library there, all while then-parish administrator Durrett was suggesting the same the same thing to Beard.

The men said Beard and the police jury received “a lot of hack” for the idea.

“They got heat from some people who didn’t like the library, but those two genetlemen stuck with it, and that’s why we got what we have today,” Durrett said. “I think it would be fitting to name two rooms after these gentlemen.”

The board agreed, deciding to work out a date in the near future for a reception and official naming of the rooms. Board Chair Augusta Clark said she was glad to learn the “historical perspective.”

“I’m appreciative to know of how it came about and the kinds of struggles you had to get it,” Clark said. “We’re so pleased you would think to recognize Jack and George for having the insight to let us be where we are.”

Hollingsworth said it takes a lot of work to make something beneficial for the community come into being.

“Things don’t just happen,” he said. “Not good things, anyway.”