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Gobblers' Mission: Not Accomplished

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By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

TURKEY CREEK - The old Gobblers have won many battles, but they may have lost the war to create a public library in the former Turkey Creek High.

"In the end, we have just the satisfaction that we fought the good fight," said Jim Fortinberry, who served as the first president of the alumni group that launched a decade-long crusade on behalf of their alma mater.

For a dozen years, the Turkey Creek High School Alumni & Friends Association has fought to save, restore and breathe new life into the old brick building that served as one of the area's historical "strawberry schools."

They spared it the wrecking ball in 1997, won its designation as a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998 and later secured the funds to replace the roof and shore up the exterior.

The group launched a petition drive, applied for grants, journeyed to Tallahassee and sold memorial bricks, all in the name of saving the old high school building, which occupies the campus of Turkey Creek Middle School, 5005 S. Turkey Creek Road.

Three years ago, when the county commission placed it on a short list of future library sites and allocated $3.9 million to transform it into a branch library to serve the residents of the Turkey Creek area, the group declared its mission accomplished.

"We thought it was a done deal," said Dana Welch, the driving force behind the fight to save the old school.

That was before county budget cuts targeted seven library projects and Turkey Creek quietly slipped off the list.

Each year the board of county commissioners approves a five-year capital plan. Turkey Creek, which had been placed on the projected plan in 2007 with a proposed completion date of 2010, didn't make the new cut amid increased competition for limited resources.

"The population is not there to justify it," said Joe Stines, director of libraries for Hillsborough County.
Stines noted that a study commissioned by Plant City's Bruton Memorial Library identified two other areas around Plant City that have a faster-growing population "that probably should be considered ahead of Turkey Creek."

The study, which identified the potential need for a city branch library north of Interstate 4, was completed and presented to the Plant City Commission in 2006.

"A lot has changed since then," said Bruton Memorial Library director Anne Haywood. The predicted explosive growth northeast of the city never materialized.

"We all know within the past year, growth has slowed to a crawl," she said. "We're too small a community for a branch. The needs would be better met by expanding our library."

Haywood attended a meeting of the library board last year to fight for funding when Bruton Memorial also stood to lose in the county budget cuts. There she presented some of the study's findings to demonstrate how many residents outside the city limits utilize Plant City's library at 302 McLendon St. More than half of those who patronize Bruton Memorial live outside the city limits, Haywood said.

The closest alternative to residents of eastern Hillsborough County is the county library on Bloomingdale Avenue, which is "bursting at the seams," Stines said.

"I think there are a number of library board members that feel with money so tight, they would rather put their money to help the Plant City library stay strong in serving those residents," Stines said.

That is little comfort to the alumni who spent 12 years trying to secure a future for the 1926 building where many in the community came of age. The school graduated its last class in 1972 and the building continued to be used by middle school students for several years after that.

The old high school was slated to be demolished to make room for a parking lot when the alumni association stepped in with a petition drive and letter-writing campaign.

"The school board turned it over to us and said do whatever you want with it," Welch said.

The association then secured federal landmark status and landed a state grant to replace the roof and refurbish the exterior. Suddenly, the school board asked for the building back, saying it was needed for classrooms to deal with area growth.

"We were ecstatic because that's what we wanted it used for in the first place," Welch said. "We called Tallahassee and withdrew the application for the grant and asked them to award it to someone else."

Months later, the school board decided it had no use for the building after all. To make up for the loss of the association's grant, the county paid $200,000 for a new roof, new windows, termite treatments and other improvements.

The alumni set their sights on having the county utilize it as a branch library after polling people in the community about their needs. Welch said the Walden Lake Homeowners Association approved of the plan and wrote letters of support to county commissioners.

Fortinberry was not surprised by the library project's failure to reach fruition.

"I felt like the day the county commission took the vote, but set it way out in the future, that it was kind of a tactic on their part: getting us out of their hair but not really planning to do anything," he said.

"My feeling from the beginning was that it was the type of project the school board could commit to, then just sort of let the building deteriorate over the years rather than give it the maintenance it required."

Now the interior will need extensive work to rehabilitate the landmark, Welch said. Nonetheless, it is structurally sound, according to an analysis the association commissioned.

"That building should be actively in good use by the school today," Fortinberry said.

Haywood is among those who do not believe the building is well-suited to be a library. Yet, she, too, would like to see it put to good use.

"We've torn down so many things that in hindsight we wish we had back. It's an important part of East Hillsborough's history," she said.

Haywood suggests it would make a good place for meetings of Scout troops and other organizations in the community.

"We're certainly in town hurting for gathering places," she said.

For now, the alumni association that has been dormant since its members declared "mission accomplished," will have to meet to discuss their options.

Those who led the crusade to save the school are not optimistic.

"We played by the rules; we did all that was asked of us," said a disappointed Fortinberry.
Stines said the prospect of a library at Turkey Creek isn't entirely a lost cause.

"The priority process will start again, and I encourage Dana to get involved in that and start coming back to library board meetings. I don't think the facts and figures will change, though. And the competition's gotten tougher because there's a lot less money than there was," he said.

Hillsborough Commissioner Brian Blair assured association members recently their work was not in vain.

"I'm confident that we will put this project back on the Capital Improvement list as soon as our County Library resources pick back up; which I estimate will be another year," Blair wrote in an e-mail to association member Tom Vann.

Welch, for her part, is ready to throw in the towel.

"It's been back and forth, back and forth. It was very extensive what we had to do, and we did it on our own time," she said.

Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436 or jhollingsworth@tampatrib.com.

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