Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Community Librarian Dolly Barnes stands watch over her domain at the Saratoga Library.

Plans to expand the library hit stalemate over tax issue

City's book keepers need more room

By Sarah Lombardo

As if the bookmark had fallen from their book, members of the city's Library Commission are finding difficultly in picking up plans to expand the Saratoga Community Library where they left off.

Before they can proceed, commissioners must update their reports to reflect an even more crowded and busier library; they must stress to the City Council and the public the urgency of the library's need for more room; and they must do it all with the utility-users tax looming on the November ballot.

Irene Jacobs, city staff member for the Library Commission, said the commission can do little until after the election.

"They are not going to do anything until the utility-users tax passes," Jacobs said. "Because if it doesn't pass, there's not going to be a lot to work with, and the public's concern will be on other issues."

The idea for an expanded library is not a new one. In 1991, the commission set the ball rolling for expansion and the plans got far enough that the City Council chose an architect for the project. But, abruptly, the expansion and the bond measure proposed to fund it were abandoned in 1993 after county budget cuts left the library scrambling to maintain its services.

"The funding from the state went bye-bye all of a sudden, and [the Library Commission's] main focus had to be on keeping the library open, let alone expanding it," Jacobs said.

Now, the commission is ready to try again. With the 1994 passage of Measure A, the initiative that added a parcel tax of $33 a year per household to communities being served by Santa Clara County libraries, the library was able to return to normal operation.

"We were able to open more and buy more books and materials," said Dolly Barnes, community librarian supervisor. "With the return of library services, the commission could say, 'OK, the problem hasn't gotten any better, it's gotten worse, so we need to do something about it.' "

For the past few months, the commission has been holding informational meetings with city officials, according to Jacobs.

"They've brought in officials and kind of thrown out ideas," she said. "Nothing is concrete; they've just put feelers out."

Some of those feelers include where the money will come from to pay for library expansion. According to Jacobs, one of the first questions the commission asked was if they could rely on any city funds. The answer was negative.

"There aren't any city funds to be had," she said.

Jacobs said that left the commission considering a bond measure and garnering enough public support to pass it. And that, Jacobs said, is why the commission is treading so softly.

"The last commission put a lot of work into the expansion project," Jacobs said, "and [the current commission] doesn't want it to fail because should it fail, they know it'll be a while before they can present it again."

The commission has jumped one major hurdle toward recommending an expansion plan to the city: Commissioners recently completed work on updating their needs assessment report from October 1991.

The report contains some startling statistics.

"Seating in the library is in very short supply," the report states. "While more than 1,000 people visit the library each day, there are only 61 adult seats, 31 elementary and 14 preschool seats."

According to the report, foot traffic in the 18,000-square-foot library has increased from 277,660 people between 1990 and 1991 to 350,338 people between 1995 and 1996.

Barnes said she has no room for more books, and the bookshelves are too high as it is now.

Commissioner David McLaughlin said the needs assessment report shows that the library situation has gone from bad to worse.

"We grossly underestimated how desperately we need a new library now, let alone five years ago," he said. "Are we willing to throw away a book each time we get a new one?"

In addition to space for books, the report calls for technological advances in the library to keep the public up to date, room for quiet study areas and group study areas, better lighting and a drive-up book drop.

With the needs assessment report completed, the commission now has to decide if it wants to go back to the old plans, architectural drawings and architect from 1992, or begin all over again with new committees and another architect interview process.

"I don't want to close off any options," Commissioner Karen Ceppos said. Ceppos, who was a member of the expansion committee in 1992, said the commission should explore as many options as it can right now instead of going back to plans and decisions made years ago.

Jacobs said the commission needs to find out if members will be allowed by the City Council to be involved in choosing an architect, or in deciding whether an expansion committee will need to be formed, and what kind of support the city will offer.

At Wednesday's meeting, the commission decided to table any discussions of further action until they got more information.

Jacobs predicted the commission would probably make a recommendation for expansion to the City Council before November. Should all go as planned, a bond measure could go before the public as early as November 1998.