Last summer, with the construction of the new Lakewood Ranch Library well underway, Tammy Parrott, Manatee County’s library services manager, made a discovery that posed what at first seemed an insurmountable challenge.
The shelves had room for more 21,000 more books than had been budgeted. She was going to need more money to fill those shelves — $410,000 more. Parrott knew the county government would not increase the $580,000 it had committed for books. She didn’t panic, though. The library would simply have to open with empty shelf space — no crime there — and it would get filled up over time.
Enter the Friends of Lakewood Ranch Library, a nonprofit formed in 2017 when it appeared that the community would finally get the library for which it had long pushed.
One day last August,…
