STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Longboat Key Town Manager Howard Tipton is breathing as if the weight of an entire public library was lifted from his shoulders.
In many ways, Tipton’s feeling is justified following the news that on June 4, a long-anticipated vote or by Sarasota County went the way the Longboat Key Commission and Tipton had hoped.
And the decision was multi faceted. The County agreed that Longboat’s fundraising had reached its goal of $3.5 million and now the design phase for the public library can move forward.
Longboat successfully raised the $3.5 million to pay for the custom enhancements to the core library, which the county is building at Town Center Green between Publix and the public tennis center on the Island.
Additionally, Sarasota County agreed it would relax the requirement of 25% of the Library’s total cost of a projected $14 million be required for the naming rights of the library.
Longboat Key resident, United States Congressman and founder of Sarasota Ford Vern Buchanan offered to donate $1 million toward the library enhancements for Longboat Key if the county would agree to name the entire library after the Buchanan foundation. The county agreed on June 4, and so now the plan is moving forward.
Town Manager Tipton was tasked with spearheading fundraising for the project. Tipton met with Vern Buchanan and his wife, Sandy, as well as the library officials and said that Vern seemed absolutely thrilled that the project is moving forward and was excited to participate.
As for the fundraising, $3.1 million was donated by 12 people with Buchanan being the largest donor.
Mayor Ken Schneier and his wife, Cynthia, are major donors to the Library construction as well.
For Ken Schneier, It became an important, almost legacy project to see through. He I just started on the Commission eight years ago when the Town had a formal agreement with Ringling College to build and operate a community art center on Longboat at the same location. That agreement fell through when fellow commissioners disparaged the Ringling organization on several occasions in meetings and in writing. The two then-commissioners, Ed Zunz and George Spoll, at one meeting questioned the commitment and trustworthiness of Ringling. Soon after, Ringling President Larry Thompson called then Town Manager Tom Harmer and informed him that Ringling was pulling from the agreement and that the fundraising environment had become difficult and uphill.
Schneier is pleased that after seven years, an agreement with the county has been forged, the fundraising completed and much of what the Town has sought for so many years is finally coming to fruition.
“That really motivated me,” said Schneier.
There are details to still be worked out such as the leasing of the Longboat Key land to the county for a 50-year term, but the town manager does not believe any of these housekeeping issues will present problems.
The real threat is simply the fact that the estimated cost of the project is a calculation created more than a year ago by Sarasota County. As Longboat knows recently when it built a performance pavilion at the Longboat Key Town Center Green, the cost escalated from a projected $500,000 to almost $800,000 when the bids came in.
In this situation, although it is going to bid for cost, the contractor is already been chosen and Swift Construction has been chosen.
So what is next? Tipton says the really meaningful next act is the county will develop detailed designs for construction. The Town, says Tipton, will have tremendous input into that process, especially regarding the Longboat Key enhancements. The enhancements include a community room that can seat more than 200 for an event, or a class, or a lecture or a meeting. The other enhancement is an outdoor seating area, a terrace of sorts, that will be covered and will be a community gathering area where residents and visitors can read, surf the Internet on their devices as well as lazily sip on cappuccinos since there is talk of a coffee bar going into the project.
The library in total will be about?? Square feet and construction is slated to begin in the spring of next year.
