The Friends of the Lake Panasoffkee Library apparently has no friends on the Sumter County Commission.
Commissioners agreed Tuesday night that County Administrator Bradley Arnold can evict the friends group from the library. The eviction would throw out the group’s Pages bookstore, where discontinued library books are sold.
The community of Lake Panasoffkee is west of Interstate 75 in southwestern Sumter County.
The decision came after Commissioner Doug Gilpin blasted the group as uncooperative.
The real issue is the outsourcing of library administration, which some group members don’t support. The commission made a controversial decision in 2013 to outsource many county library functions to Library Systems and Services (LSSI) of Germantown, Md.
“It’s not a group that has been willing to adapt,” Gilpin said of the Lake Panasoffkee group. “They are an independent group that is off on its own goals. I just think the space could be used more wisely by the county.”
He said the group has donated $200 to the library while the larger Villages friends group has been more cooperative and raised over $20,000.
Gilpin also criticized the Lake Panasoffkee group for offering two $1,000 college scholarships each year, which it has done since 2010.
“I’m not against scholarships for kids, but I think it is supposed to go back to the library,” he said.
The county’s decision took friends group members by surprise.
Former president Patricia Tillis said she felt betrayed when the county outsourced the library services two years ago because the community worked together to provide the building and land to found the library.
“They turned around and took all of my enthusiasm and my energy by outsourcing the staff,” she said of the commission. “We wanted to keep it local. We wanted the feel of community and they stripped it away from us.”
Current friends group president Penny Rosenburg could not be reached for comment.
