Late physician's dream for new Olanta library comes true

OLANTA — The future Olanta public library will be a dream realized for the late Dr. Johnny Thomason, described by his daughter as a strong believer in education.

A ground-breaking ceremony took place Friday for the 6,500-square-foot Dr. John M. Thomason Public Library, which will stand along East Hampton Street in memory and honor of the Olanta native and Florence physician.

Kim Thomason Turner, Thomason’s daughter, recalled when her father took one of her sisters to the library to research the Wright brothers for a term paper.
“With this library, the legacy of my dad can go forward, providing a place where the people in Olanta can connect with the world (and) can learn about the Wright brothers or medicine or barbecue,” Turner said.

Turner, a Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation board member, was speaking to a crowd in Olanta exactly two weeks after her father’s death at age 72.
The ceremony also took place exactly a week after the ground breaking for Timmonsville’s Baker Memorial Public Library.

“People ask me, ‘Why do you want a library in Olanta?’ We want growth. We want people to be educated,” said Florence County councilman Johnnie Rodgers Jr., whose district includes Olanta.

The current Olanta library, in an overcrowded former county health building, has four computers, but the new library will have 16 — 10 for adults and six for children.

The Olanta and Timmonsville libraries each will have a 65-seat meeting room, wireless Internet, and 8,000 books with space for 4,000 more.

The libraries will be mirror images of each other, Florence County Library System Director Ray McBride said.

Dr. Julia Mims, chairwoman of the library system’s board of trustees, said that in light of the new library, she hopes the children of Olanta are as excited about learning as the children her daughter Anna teaches in Myanmar, a southeast Asian country devastated earlier this month by a cyclone.

“The bright spot in all of that tragedy is that when the international school (in Myanmar) reopened, 169 of the 170 students showed up, eager to resume their quest for knowledge” despite the country’s regime that controls the newspaper and television, Mims said.

The Drs. Bruce and Lee Foundation has given a $2 million grant to build Timmonsville and Olanta’s new branch libraries. Florence County has approved about $1 million each for the two libraries.

The new libraries are estimated to cost between $2 million and $2.2 million each.

State Sen. John C. Land III and Rep. Phillip Lowe, who represent Olanta, said they’ve recently worked $250,000 into the state budget for the new library.

The Florence County Library System began updating its facilities when the current Lake City Public Library opened in 2001. It was followed by Florence’s Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation Library in 2004 and the Dozier M. Munn Pamplico Public Library in September.

The Johnsonville Public Library recently received a $550,000 check from the state Legislature. The library system is spending $100,000 of that amount for a new site across from Johnsonville High School on South Georgetown Highway.