CITY COMMISSION VOTES 5-0 TO TAKE NEXT STEP IN EXPANSION.
Plant Citians named the Bruton Memorial Library after Quintilla Geer Bruton and Judge James D. Bruton Jr. Quintilla Bruton began campaigning in the 1950s for a public library in Plant City. It was not until the early 1960s that the building became a reality. Mrs. Bruton’s husband James donated $200,000 to an expansion that was completed in 1994. The building has remained at 20,000 square feet since that time.
“Plant City’s impressive increase in population and economic growth in recent years has provided the opportunity to expand services to meet changing resident needs throughout our service area,” Library Services Director Paul Shaver said. “The expansion will bring not only sustainability, more space, aesthetic appeal, and comfort, but also a far greater breadth and depth of services for the widest possible range of our library users. Among other new offerings, the auditorium, the separate children’s area, more study rooms, and multiple meeting spaces are direct responses to patron needs and requests that we will be so excited to offer our residents.”
Among 30 other libraries in Hillsborough County, the Plant City library is designated to cover the third largest service-area population. The number of people making use of the library has dramatically increased in the last five years.
• 2020 – 67,057
• 2021 – 61,596
• 2022 – 85,926
• 2023 – 93,377
• 2024 – 103,016
Checkouts of books, other materials, and eBooks has also skyrocketed.
• 2020 – 120,974
• 2021 – 213,374
• 2022 – 210,827
• 2023 – 231,814
• 2024 – 266,171
“We have a library that is pretty much the same footprint and the same layout it has been since it was built,” City Manager Bill McDaniel said. “I went to that library when I was a kid. We have changed it some since then, but to serve a growing community you’ve got to keep up and sometimes get ahead of the curve. That is what we are doing here. It has been an initiative of the City for a number of years to upgrade the library. We’ve looked at several strategies over the years for how we want to approach it, and, frankly, we were never quite satisfied with any of them. We went through this master plan concept with ASD/SKY and it meets all of our requirements. It also is going to provide a number of amenities that allow for the programming we need as a community.”
At the January 13 City Commission meeting, staff showed a video presentation with 3D images of architectural renderings developed by ASD|SKY. The envisioned three-story expansion and renovation will increase the facility size to 36,500 square feet and add an additional parking lot. The City Commission voted 5-0 to pass resolution 25-009 authorizing staff to proceed with the request for qualification process (RFQ) as the next step in the Renovation and Expansion project.
Once completed, the facility is planned to house:
• A 192-seat auditorium with an operable wall and a folding stage
• A separate children’s area with a lounge
• A storytelling room with an operable wall
• A sensory room
• A community computer lab
• Eight study rooms
• Five meeting rooms
• Five lounge and reading areas
• Shelving for more than 60,000 books and other materials
• An art gallery
• Two new Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms
• A family restroom
• A nursing room
• An improved imagination garden with outdoor seating
“When a community doesn’t have assets to use, it doesn’t know what it is missing, perhaps,” McDaniel said. “And when you start creating things like this, you find that the demand was there—there was just no way to meet it before. The city has been acquiring the property behind the library for just such a purpose.”
“The city is well-positioned financially to be able to afford moving forward on the new library renovation project.” City Commissioner Bill Dodson said during the meeting.
The total cost of the project, including some funding for unforeseen costs, is $14,824,987. Sources to fund the project are detailed below.
• Impact Fees – $2,564,846
• Mobility Impact Fees – $847,749
• Community Investment Tax – $7,449,931
• General Fund – $3,962,461
“It’s a big price tag—it probably takes everybody back a little bit,” Mayor Nate Kilton commented during the meeting. “We are building not just for tomorrow, but also for 10 years from now. And you have to remember we are not serving just Plant City, we are serving all of eastern Hillsborough County….It is going to be a wonderful amenity for us that is going to serve our entire community well into the future.”
