Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Danny Cheng (laft) and Steve Teng, both 12th graders at Saratoga High School, study English at the library. They say they go there about once a week to do homework.

Architect for library expansion could be chosen as early as July

Bond issue will be on June '98 ballot

By Sarah Lombardo

An architect for the expansion of the Saratoga Community Library could be chosen as early as July, according to a timeline approved for the project by the Saratoga Library Commission.

The timeline is scheduled to be given to the City Council tonight, along with an RFP (request for proposals) to recruit architects for the project and a roster of who the commissioners recommend for the Library Expansion Committee.

The move is the next step for the project on the road to the ballot in June 1998, and is the latest in a recent whirlwind of activity. Since January, the commission has received City Council support to place a bond on the June 1998 ballot, gained funding approval for architectural drawings and planned the next 16 months until the election. A campaign committee will be be set up next, said community librarian Dolly Barnes.

"I think it's falling into place," commission chairwoman Marcia Manzo said of the project, "and it think the biggest thing that happened was that we were really able to go to the town and offer them a way to say yes without costing them anything."

On Jan. 7, after months of talk about expansion plans, the commission received the support of the City Council in placing a bond measure for the expansion on the June '98 ballot. "At that time [the City Council] asked the commission to come back with a plan, and this is the plan that they are sending back to the council," Barnes said. The next day, the commissioners drafted and sent a letter to the Santa Clara County Library Joint Powers Authority, stating that the city backed the project and requesting funds to pay for initial architectural drawings. Under a new library-expansion policy adopted by the county last October, the nearly $43,000 needed for the drawings could be provided by the JPA. But the catch was that the JPA would only provide the funding for a few libraries at a time, so speed was of the essence.

The Saratoga Community Library expansion issue was able to get on the agenda for the Jan. 23 JPA meeting, in addition to Morgan Hill's and Gilroy's requests. Commissioner Sally Towse said the meeting was successful.

"All three libraries made their pitch to the JPA," Towse said. "All three libraries were given funding approval for the preliminary architectural work."

Expansion plans for the Community Library, which is operated by the county but whose building is owned by the city, call for more than doubling the library's size from 18,000 square feet to 44,000 square feet. With January circulation reaching 71,000 items, the library's current space is woefully inadequate.

This is the library commission's second attempt at enlarging the library. The first time was in 1991, when plans advanced as far as choosing an architect. But the expansion was halted with county budget cuts in 1993.

The costs for the library expansion is estimated to cost about $4 or 5 million, according to Manzo. A daunting number, but Barnes said that she is confident that Saratogans will approve the bond.

"Saratoga has passed two library measures. A bond to get the one built and then recently Measure A, so the track record of ballot measures on the library is pretty good," Barnes said. "But then again, you never know."