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The Spring Hill Public Library.

 Spring Hill Public Library

Spring Hill city leaders Monday night officially accepted a $32,087 grant made possible from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), and will be using the funds to help support the city's public library.

Passed back in March of 2021, ARP is an economic stimulus bill that included the third round of stimulus checks at $1,400 a piece, additional unemployment benefits for a period of six months and $350 billion toward state and local aid.

While the grant comes from the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the funds are supported by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, which offers ARP funds for technology equipment, furniture and circulating items.

Approved Monday night during Spring Hill's monthly voting meeting, the roughly $32,000 will go toward supporting the public library by way of updating staff computers, guest workstations and for funding additional circulating materials online for public use.

Per the requirements of the bill, the city is required to make an additional match of $3,565.

The Spring Hill Library has existed at its current location on Kedron Parkway since 2002, and at 17,000 square feet, has been eyed for an expansion for years. Originally intended to expand to a larger space in the Northfield Workforce Development Center, those plans were scrapped after the city sold the property to Worldwide Stages, a Nashville-based entertainment group.

The library has seen difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic of raising funds as it has in the past through in-person book sales, but has since returned to in-person events and sales as of this past fall. Nevertheless, city leaders hope the additional funds will help the library better serve Spring Hill's ever-growing community of more than 50,000 residents.