The Town of Port Royal is on the verge of getting its first library. Here’s the plan

Beaufort County is looking into putting its sixth library in a vacant building on Port Royal’s main street, and it’s considering two additional locations for libraries as well.

Port Royal residents welcomed the move.

“Fantastic,” Port Royal Mayor Joe DeVito said Thursday, when Alice Howard, who represents District 4 on the County Council, filled in the Port Royal Town Council on the plans.

If approved, it would be the first library for a town that is now northern Beaufort County’s largest community, based on the 2020 census results.

The Beaufort County Library Board has OK’d exploring the idea of opening a new library inside a county-owned building at 1408 Paris Ave. that’s empty and recently became available, Howard said.

The plan still needs approval from the Public Facilities Committee and then the Beaufort County Council.

Funding for needed repairs will be brought to the Public Facility Committee in February or March, said Chris Ophardt, a county spokesman.

The county, Ophardt said, would like to see the Port Royal library open by summer 2023.

The cost of renovating the 3,000-square-foot brick building is estimated to be around $250,000, Chuck Atkinson, the county’s assistant administrator for development and recreation, told the Library Board on Sept. 14. The building, built in the 1990s, needs a new roof and other improvements.

“I know from a public input standpoint,” Atkinson said, “there’s been a considerable interest in having a library in the Port Royal area.”

Turning the building into a library, he said, is a “golden opportunity.”

The building recently became available. There’s a limited window of time to act, Atkinson said, and interest in it among county departments is high. Buying and developing land in the area usually costs in the millions.

“This is something that, if we can make this happen, the upside is huge,” Atkinson told Library Board members.

The building is a former senior center, Ophardt said.

Currently, the closest library to Port Royal is the Downtown Library on Scott Street in Beaufort, which is 5 miles away.

The new library, Howard noted, will be within walking distance of the Port Royal school, post office, Cypress Wetlands and many surrounding neighborhoods such as Shell Point and Mossy Oaks.

“I am very excited for the possibility of a library in the town,” Howard said.

The county would need to put out a request for proposals for renovations and furniture, Howard said.

Funding for the renovations would come from library impact fees.

On Thursday, the Port Royal Town Council passed agreements with the county to collect impact fees from developers for library, parks and recreation and transportation projects. The county uses those fees to fund capital projects across the county.

Prior to approving the impact fees, Port Royal and county officials agreed on a list of capital projects Port Royal would like to see funded with impact fees, said Van Willis, Port Royal’s town manager. But the library project, Willis said, is “gravy” because it came up after that agreement.

Beaufort County currently operates five libraries in Beaufort, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island, Lobeco and St. Helena Island.

The county also is exploring new libraries in Burton and along S.C. 170 in the Okatie/Bluffton area, Ophardt said.