Clearwater Beach Library gets a permanent home
By ALEXANDRA CALDWELL
Article published on Wednesday, July 23, 2008  |
 |
![[Image]](/content_images/072308_cit-01.jpg) |
| Photo by Alexandra Caldwell |
| Eleanor Scharf, assistant director of the Clearwater Beach Library, left, and Lee Kibbe, library assistant, check out books for patrons at the grand opening of the Clearwater Beach Library at its permanent location. |
|
CLEARWATER BEACH – Ellie Holmes and Lois Davis, both of Clearwater Beach, have petitioned and written letters to save the Clearwater Beach Library.
They volunteered when the library temporarily operated out of a construction trailer.
They fought to keep their library so residents wouldn’t have to fight tourist traffic to access the libraries in mainland Clearwater.
Finally, after about five years of uncertainty, the Clearwater Beach Library got a permanent home Monday, July 21.
“The main library is beautiful, but this is homey,” Davis said. “This is smaller. This is more reflective of a neighborhood.”
Holmes agreed.
“You come in and you know your neighbors,” Holmes said. “When I was volunteering, people would walk in and, oh, it’s someone you know. And that makes you feel good.”
The library now shares a building with the Clearwater Beach Recreation Center and Family Aquatic Center, 69 Bay Esplanade. This is the same location where the first library on Clearwater Beach stood, according to a historical overview of the library at the ribbon cutting ceremony. It later moved to the Memorial Civic Center, but when the roundabout was approved for construction in 1998, the library lost its home. The library moved to Pelican Walk, but soon rent soared and the city budget was tight, so in 2003, the city started talking about closing or relocating it, said Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard.
But the residents of Clearwater Beach wanted their library. They wrote letters, signed petitions and worked together to save their library. In 2007, Hibbard said the city would find the library a permanent home on city-owned land.
“Overall budget issues were a major concern and how many libraries are truly appropriate for all of Clearwater. Currently we have five,” Hibbard said. “I think Clearwater Beach is unique in that there are traffic issues from here to the mainland that a lot of the rest of Clearwater does not experience. So rather than having this debate on an annual basis, I think we decided that it was a good opportunity to combine it with the existing recreation center.”
For a year, the library was in a construction trailer, but now it has settled into a sunny room in the center that used to be an arts and crafts room, said Eleanor Scharf, assistant director of the library. This facility focuses on popular materials, she said, and it has computers with Internet access. If this branch doesn’t have a book a patron wants, librarians can order it from the other branches within a day, she said.
Carol Carlson of Clearwater, said she lives between the Main Library and the Clearwater Beach Library and visits one or the other each week. When she first saw the new facility, all she could say was “Wow.”
“I think they did an excellent job, and our year-round residents will like it, and so will our seasonal visitors,” Carlson said.
City officials, including Vice Mayor George Cretekos, said the library will be good for tourists, too.
“It serves a need for our residents, but just as important, it serves our tourists – our visitors,” Cretekos said. “I volunteered when they were in the trailer, and I noticed just how many visitors came in to check e-mail or print their tickets or do a little research. So it shows another aspect of how Clearwater is tourist friendly.”
|
Article published on Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved. |
