- December 13, 2025
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While Manatee County has delayed several key projects, it is moving forward with its plan to build out of the Lakewood Ranch Library, which could be functional by April.
“Don’t hold me to that because you know how construction goes,” said Lyn Begraft, Manatee County's assistant library services manager. “But it’s coming.”
The second floor buildout in Lakewood Ranch is only one of several large projects Begraft and Library Services Manager Tammy Parrott will be taking on in 2026.
Just as the Lakewood Ranch Library buildout wraps up in April, an 8,000-square-foot expansion of the Rocky Bluff Library in Ellenton is due to begin. Other projects include a bookmobile that will be hitting the road, and a library at the former Mixon Farms will enter the design phase.
As of now, the library system in Manatee County is, according to state recommendations, underserving its residents. The state suggests 0.6 square feet of libraries per 1,000 residents.
With 144,000 square feet of library space, Manatee County comes up 125,000 square feet short of service, so the aforementioned projects will chip away at that gap.
The second floor at Lakewood Ranch and the expansion at Rocky Bluff will add 33,000 square feet of space.
"The figure will be at 64% of the goal (to meet the state recommendation)," Parrott said. "We cannot predict any specific square footage for the Mixon property as that will need to be determined by the Board of County Commissioners."
Construction on the second floor buildout is anticipated to start later this fall.
The layout is still in progress, but the 25,000-square-foot second floor will feature flex space that includes study rooms, county offices and a workroom for the Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library.
While not official yet, Parrott said the Adult Nonfiction section likely will move upstairs. The collection lends itself to the space because the library's only study rooms will be on the second floor.
Since the Lakewood Ranch Library opened in January 2024, patrons have regularly requested study rooms, according to the staff.
The first floor will remain the same, except that moving the nonfiction collection upstairs will give it “a little more room to breathe.”
The Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library has also been asking for space upstairs. Members of the group run the Book Nook, which is the book store in the lobby of the library. All profits go straight back to the library.
Last year, the Friends group raised $13,590 that supported author fairs, library programs and staff training.
President Sue Ann Miller has been pushing for space on the second floor because the group has no place to inspect and clean the books that are donated to the Book Nook. Books in substandard condition are not resold.
The group also needs storage. Right now, books waiting to hit the shelves are stored in Miller’s garage and a guest room at Treasurer Steve Borkenhagen’s house.
Having the books stored off-site forces the volunteers to set up special collection days, but a room upstairs will allow volunteers to accept donations whenever the Book Nook is open.
The aforementioned uses are the only ones specifically tied to the library. The space leftover will be used for county offices and community meeting space.
Partitions will be used, as they are on the first floor, to easily reconfigure the community space from smaller rooms to one big room depending on what's needed.
At the start of the project, there were discussions about Veterans Services and even parole officers having county offices on the second floor.
That idea has morphed into a more general flex space, where anyone from a commissioner to an IT worker could have an office to use when working in East County.
It’s a concept that's being introduced across county buildings.
As many county departments move from the administration building in downtown Bradenton to the $23.5 million, 101,312-square-foot second administration building on Town Center Parkway in Lakewood Ranch, flex space is being reserved in both of those buildings, too.
Workers won’t have to crisscross the county to have someplace to sit down and work.
What will be crisscrossing the county is a library on wheels.
The $587,100 custom coach bookmobile is anticipated to arrive from Matthews Specialty Vehicles in North Carolina sometime in early 2026.
It can carry up to 2,500 books and has everything a librarian could need to provide programs like story time in a park or a parking lot.
The bookmobile comes equipped with desks, wifi, audio and visual equipment, cabinets, brochure racks, indoor and outdoor TVs, a PA system and a kitchenette. Everything is built in, so all library staff will need to do is stock it with books and supplies.
What might be slightly more difficult for the staff is learning how to drive and park the bookmobile.
Parrott said it’s a big bus, but it weighs just under what requires a commercial drivers license. The county’s fleet department will be maintaining the bookmobile, so it will also train library staff on how to drive it.
The county’s prior bookmobiles were before the current staff's time, so Parrott and Begraft weren’t sure when the last time a bookmobile served county residents.
However, the Manatee County Public Library Long Range Plan 2012-2017 indicates that the last bookmobile was deactivated in 2011.
The plan provides a brief history of the service:
“The first Bookmobile went into service in Manatee County on August 18, 1964. The purpose of the Bookmobile was to serve library users all over the county and to determine locations where future permanent libraries needed to be built. The economic recession of 1981-1982 caused the demise of the Bookmobile service. There was no Bookmobile service until January 2002. Numerous retirement homes, childcare centers, pre-schools and locations far from a physical library were regularly visited by the Bookmobile with drivers and staff from the Central Library Circulation Department. The economic recession caused the Bookmobile service to again be discontinued in September of 2010. Although for some time the Bookmobile was utilized as a marketing tool at special events, as of May 1, 2011, the Bookmobile will remain parked.”
In the 1960s, the bookmobile was used as an indicator of where the next libraries should be built. The purpose of the new bookmobile is to serve those areas where libraries were not built.
Parrott confirmed that Myakka City will be one of the “underserved” stops, but she said an exact location has not yet been determined.
The plan is to have the bookmobile in service at least five days a week.
One of the ideas behind Commissioner Amanda Ballard advocating for Manatee County to purchase Mixon Farms was that the former store could be converted into a library, and the commercial kitchen could be used for culinary classes.
The county purchased the property in July for $13.5 million, but the main focus right now is rehabbing and expanding the event lawn. Starting in November, Manatee Movie Nights will be hosted at Mixon on the second Friday of each month.
The first goal for Library Services is to get a design in place and then possibly establish a nonprofit like the Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library, but for Mixon.
To form the Friends of the Lakewood Ranch Library, the county held a public meeting and asked for any interested parties to step up and start a Friends group. Nothing has been finalized, but Parrott said it's under consideration to do the same for Mixon.
“Then, they’ve got skin in the game and even more impetus to get this library built,” said Bill Logan, Manatee County information outreach manager. “Having a Friends group that’s putting forth that kind of an effort shows that the community is behind it.”
