County Applies For Grant For Molino Library

September 5, 2008

Thursday night, the Escambia County Commission took a step toward bringing a library to Molino.

The commission voted to apply for a half million dollar grant to remodel a portion of the old Molino Elementary School into a branch library. In July, the county made an offer of $2 million to acquire the old Molino Elementary and the former Wedgewood Middle School in Penasacola. That offer was rejected by Escambia School Superintendet Jim Paul, who made a counter request of $3.3 million for both properties.

Negotiations to acquire the two pieces of property are ongoing, County Adminstrator Bob McLaughlin told NorthEscambia.com Thursday night. The county has made standing offer to allow the school board to use the county owned civic center rent free for graduation ceremonies forĀ  a number of years in exchange for the two school properties, but McLaughlin said the school board “wants cash in the hand”.

There were some issues with the property line at the old Molino school with an adjacent property owner, McLaughlin said, but a quit claim deed has been signed to alleviate that hurdle. No it’s just a matter of the two government entities agreeing on a purchase price.

The commission first applied for the half million grant from the State of Florida in March 2007. The application was ranked number two out of 23 applications in the state, but the legislature failed to provide funding for the state library program. Thursday night’s vote by the commission was to simply reapply for grant money this year.

“The library in Molino would be a very good thing for people in that area,” McLaughlin told NorthEscambia.com.

The half million grant, if awarded, would be matched by another half million from the county. The county’s portion would be from the Local Option Sales Tax. The county has already approved their portion of the funds to renovate part of the old Molino Elementary into a library. The grant, if awarded, would require the county to use the facility as a library in Molino for a minumum of 20 years.

Comments

One Response to “County Applies For Grant For Molino Library”

  1. Susan Slay on September 8th, 2008 11:07 pm

    I think it is a wonderful idea for the school to be used for such a great thing for the community. I hate to school the school being unused and going to waste. It’s still a great building even though it is old. The library can be used by all the area vicinities from as far as Gonzalez even to Century & as far as Atmore. Alot of the people in theses areas work in Pensacola. I would even like to work partime if needed.