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Showing the Palm Harbor Library colors

Palm Harbor library

Here in Palm Harbor, we are pretty proud of our library.
Palm Harbor is in an unincorporated part of Pinellas County. That means there are no local funds available for such things as libraries. But we make due with funding from the county, and we find other sources of funding when we need them.
Case in point; a few years ago there was a lot of support for upgrades and modernizations for the library.  So library supporters got together and found more than a million dollars for a library upgrade project — $500,000 from the state, $247,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, $500,000 in local matching funds and $100,000 that was raised by the Friends of the Library.
The result was an upgraded parking lot, a new community room and new restrooms, as well as a much-improved teen room. There is also several new study rooms and a new conference room.
While other libraries in the county (and elsewhere) are cutting back and trying to figure out how to keep the doors open, the Palm Harbor Library is going strong.
Several library workers and supporters were on hand at the Palm Harbor Citrus Festival this weekend just to “show the colors” and make sure people in the community remember that their library is an important community resource.

Tags: citrus festival, library, Palm Harbor

Palm Harbor Citrus Festival

We just got back from spending a little time at the Palm Harbor Citrus Festival, the latest effort to pump up the Old Palm Harbor downtown section, located right off Alt. 19.

This is the first year of the Citrus Festival, which celebrates Palm Harbor’s history as a major citrus growing region.  Actually, that history doesen’t really hark back that far — Palm Harbor was still hosting large tracts of citrus growing land right up through the 1970s and 1980s. Earlier than that, citrus fruit is what built and sustained  this northern part of Pinellas County.

We got to the Festival a bit early on Saturday morning, so there weren’t too many people milling around. But exhibitors were setting up their booths, and carnival workers  were just showing up to get their rides going. There were a number of food booths, including one interesting-looking barbecue outfit that just might draw me back there at mid-day for lunch.

The Downtown Palm Harbor merchants really do a good job of trying to pump up their region. They do a great and very well-know arts show arounf the holiday season, and the annual Taste of Palm Harbor event is very popular. They even sponsor an annual motorcycle event.

You can see more pictures of the Citrus Festival at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bethfrederick/sets/72157617209915435/

Tags: citrus festival, downtown, Palm Harbor