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The project will include a concert hall and a gallery connected by a garden.
By JENNIFER FARRELL
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 14, 2001
SPRING HILL -- The board of directors of the Times Publishing Co., parent company of the St. Petersburg Times, on Tuesday committed $50,000 for the planned Nimmagadda Cultural Center in Spring Hill.
The grant will be distributed in equal amounts over the next four years, starting in January 2002, and is part of an estimated $175,000 in pledges and donations received for the project in the past few weeks, according to consultant Vince Vanni.
"It's one more step toward legitimizing the project and ensuring that it's going to be reality," he said. "This has been an incredible couple of weeks. . . . Every time we turn around, someone else is making a donation."
Nancy Waclawek, the Times' director of development, said the broad community support given to the project impressed the company's grant committee.
"The goal of our corporate-giving program is to give generously to projects that make the communities where we sell our paper better places to live," she added. "The Times' grants committee believes that the Nimmagadda center will greatly enhance the quality of life in Hernando County, and even west Pasco County."
The Times funds projects in its five-county circulation area in the general areas of arts/culture, education, civic and social services. Last year, the company donated more than $800,000 to a variety of non-profit organizations in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.
At the end of May, the Spring Hill Civic Association voted to donate 5 acres to the Hernando County Fine Arts Council for the center in southwest Spring Hill.
Vanni said the land gift is worth between $50,000 and $100,000 and will allow the council to seek matching grants.
Meanwhile, the Spring Hill Art League pitched in $5,000; Design Graphics Advertising Associates Inc. of Port Richey donated $3,700; and the Naturecoast Festival Singers gave $500.
Vanni said private citizens and other organizations have also lined up to chip in, and the council is waiting for word this weekend on whether a $103,000 grant earmarked for the center in the state budget survives Gov. Jeb Bush's veto pen.
Plans call for the center to be built on 5 acres near the Little Red Schoolhouse. It will include two buildings -- a concert hall and a gallery -- connected by a garden. It is named after the late Dr. Sriramamurthy Nimmagadda, whose family donated $50,000 last year.
- Staff writer Jennifer Farrell covers Spring Hill and can be reached at 848-1432.