The South Tampa News & Tribune
Supporters Seek To Link Library, School
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Published: February 2, 2008
TAMPA - County budget cuts and the demolition of Central Park Village have taken their toll on plans to replace the Robert W. Saunders Sr. Public Library.
But library supporters hope to win support for a proposed partnership between the library and Booker T. Washington Elementary School, and a walkway linking the school and library.
"It's a very small thing to do," said Howard Harris Jr., president of the Ada T. Payne Friends of the Urban Libraries.
It would allow the school to expand its media center activities to the library, he said.
Last week, Harris, library friends and school officials pleaded with the library's executive board to support their request. The board agreed to review the request to allow students and the public to share the library, and to explore possible costs and funding for the walkway.
The board recommends; the county commission decides.
The library system has entered partnerships with schools including Egypt Lake Elementary and the Museum of Science & Industry Partnership.
In the past year, the Saunders library, 1505 N. Nebraska Ave., has seen its position on the county's library construction list drop from fifth to seventh, Harris said.
When the county cut about $56 million from its 2008 fiscal year budget, several library projects were delayed, including at Saunders and Sulphur Springs.
In 2005, the county was on track to build a 25,000-square-foot, two-story library about a block from Saunders on Estelle Street, next to the elementary school. Construction on the $7.8 million project was slated to begin in 2009, with an opening a year later.
The second phase called for a 300-seat public theater with room for cultural displays and black history classes.
Ada T. Payne members have been raising money for the theater.
"Please don't judge this library's successes simply on the numbers - book circulation," said Fred Hearns, president of the Robert W. Saunders Sr. Foundation, an offshoot of the library friends' group. "Central Park Village was torn down. We lost a big support group, but this is also the library for Channelside."
The school has more than 500 students, mostly from East Tampa and within a 2-mile radius of the campus.
School social worker Susan Elbare said a partnership between the school and library would bring resources to students.
"How exciting can you imagine it would be having a bridge between this library and Booker T. Washington?" Principal Jason Pepe said.
Reporter Kathy Steele can be reached at (813) 835-2103 or ksteele@tampatrib.com.
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