It’s been messy, controversial, divisive and, at times, downright nasty. But the debate over where to site Sylva’s library and what it should look like is over now, and town and county residents are ending up with building worth waiting for, an edifice that will ensure that one of the most scenic buildings in North Carolina is visited by tens of thousands of people over the next couple of generations.

The new library will attach to the back of the Jackson County Courthouse, keeping the look and feel of the exterior of the historic courthouse while providing 26,000 square feet of modern interior space for the library. Included in the project is a retrofitting of the existing courthouse to provide homes for the Jackson County Arts Council, the Jackson County Historical Society and the Jackson County Genealogical Society, along with a 175-seat auditorium.

Those who have been following this issue know how painful and laborious it has been. Originally, the county wanted to knock down the Hooper House and expand the Sylva Library at its present location. However, that suggestion led to a very wise and worthwhile effort to save and renovate the Hooper House, the last of the grand old Victorian houses in downtown Sylva.

Saving the Hooper House, however, left little room to expand the present library.

Then county commissioners and Southwestern Community College leaders came up with what seemed like a great idea: go in together to build a new library on the SCC campus. The county would have gotten more bang for its buck by making use of SCC’s state funding and would have ended up with a first-class library.

But opposition mounted, mainly from those who wanted the library downtown. Contentious public hearings were held at SCC, and the debate led to the creation of a group called BOLD (Build Our Library Downtown) and the eventual dismissal of the plan to build in Webster. As it turns out, keeping the library downtown was a great idea, and those who fought the SCC-county plan will now see the fruits of their labor.

Finally, the county searched for site near downtown and purchased land near the Jackson Plaza. This was not wholeheartedly embraced by those who wanted the library as a cornerstone of Sylva’s walkable downtown effort, but it was viewed by most as a workable compromise. It would stretch the boundaries of downtown, but it could work.

County Commissioner William Shelton, however, wanted planners to give the courthouse a last look. He and others thought the site held promise, and there is a strong feeling among many Jackson County residents to make use of and celebrate their one-of-a-kind courthouse. It is the type of signature building every town wants but few have.

So the county board agreed to ask architects one more time to consider the site and, lo and behold, the preliminary plans are absolutely stunning. If engineers, architects and builders can pull it off, the final resolution to this almost decade-long ordeal will be a wonderful addition to Sylva and Jackson County.

There are those who will complain about the price tag for the library, which is now estimated at $7 million. We would argue that public expenditures for the cultural arts have shrunk to the point where they have become mere afterthoughts. Taxpayers are always told they have to fork over millions to pay for jails and prisons, big roads, football fields and gymnasiums. Our libraries and schools, however, are often reduced to brick-and-mortar boxes that have little of the grandeur that was once so common to these buildings. This library and the accompanying offices are an investment in Jackson County’s future and its past, and it is well worth the cost.

The lasting lesson here is that spirited debate among concerned civic leaders leads to positive results. Our system for making decisions can get messy, but if we realize that and take it for what it is, good things will happen.