CAIRO — Officials with Roddenbery Memorial Library say there will be no changes to he library’s operations for the time being.

“The administrator and staff think they can stay safe and keep patrons safe with the procedures they have in place,” said Howard Thrower, chairman of the library’s board of trustees.

Library officials had discussed the possibility of shutting down the building’s interior to the public and returning to a curbside-only format as cases of COVID-19 continued to rise in Grady County, but the decision to close the building for the second time this year was scrapped after consulting with administrators from other libraries across the state. Thrower said library director Janet Boudet concluded that Roddenbery’s existing health policies were sufficient to protect patrons and employees from the virus.

Thrower also said closing the library just weeks before the scheduled beginning of the upcoming school year on September 8 would have negatively impacted local teachers, who rely on the library’s resources throughout the academic year.

The library will continue to be open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The library is closed Saturdays and Sundays.

Roddenbery Memorial Library is currently one of 38 municipal libraries in Georgia that are currently open, out of a total of 156 systems across the state. Another 24 library systems are only offering curbside service, of which eight had previously fully reopened before returning to a curbside model.