Library seeks to plot future

Mary Baker, co-president of the Longboat Library Foundation for the coming year, is one of the many library members who wants to know about the library’s place in a future town center.

Several concept drawings on the town’s website featured a library, but town center plans haven’t been updated since 2015, although the town and the Ringling College of Art and Design signed a memorandum of understanding in January, agreeing to work together to establish a cultural center as part of a future project.

Baker’s concerns led her to ask town staff to address the public on the subject.

“I feel like we’re being left in the dust,” she said, referring to discussions about the town center and the library’s future location.

At a March 23 meeting with about 20 library members, Alaina Ray, director of Planning, Zoning and Building, provided an answer:

Even the town isn’t certain.

“We anticipate and hope the library will be here for many years,” Ray said. “Whether it continues to operate in the current structure or a new facility hasn’t been decided yet. We’re still making that decision.”

Baker said the library is a beloved institution — in part because it’s something of a throwback to the past.

“Patrons of our library worship the card catalogue,” she said. “They love that we still stamp books. It’s a pleasurable throwback.”

Many of those who attended the meeting also declared their love for the current location.

“I like my library where it is,” Joel Mangel said during the meeting, “and I feel very threatened that you’re talking about moving it.”

But Ray cautioned those at the meeting that crafting a long-term plan for the library should take into account the structure itself — including whether it will require extensive maintenance and repair and if it will be able to provide the services and technology patrons will need.

The private library is self-sufficient, according to Baker, funded by membership fees and contributions. It leases its current space from the town for $10 a year. Some present at the meeting asked if the library would remain private if it moved into a future town center.

Ray assured the crowd that the town is not interested in running a library.

Plans for the town center date back to the 1970s, Ray told the group. At one point, a shopping mall was considered. A 2013 report by an Urban Land Institute panel reignited discussion of the project.

As discussions around the approximately 3-acre parcel near Amore by Andrea restaurant began to gel, town staff settled on an idea for the property: a cultural center with art exhibits, theater and, possibly, a library. In 2015, Ringling College entered the discussion.

The memorandum established, Ray said, that the town would own the land and do site work and that Ringling would lease and operate the cultural center.

“We wanted to partner with someone who is good at (operating a cultural center),” Ray said.

Ray cautioned that although there has been some discussion about what might be built and what facilities a town center would house, the town is still in a site-planning phase, and no concrete plans for buildings or services — including a future location for the library — have been determined. 

There is still time to plan. According to Ray, the town is still three to five years away from construction.

“You’re not going to get left out …” she said. “But whether (the library will be) in the existing building or not is something we’ll all need to decide in the future.”