Schabarum Pushes for New Library

Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum has tried to persuade reluctant school board members to approve a county proposal to build a new, multimillion dollar library in the unincorporated community of Hacienda Heights.

“Time is of the essence,” Schabarum told board members of the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District last Thursday, urging them to approve the county’s 2-year-old proposal to lease part of an abandoned school site from the city and construct a 30,000-square-foot library there. The new building would be three times as large as the current library, which is one mile from now-closed Dibble Elementary School.

Board members were not swayed by Schabarum’s plea, however, and refused to take a vote on the lease proposal. After brief discussion, they said they would make a decision later.

The present library on La Monde Street “is, quite frankly, overused and undersized because of the growth of the community,” the supervisor told the board.

The number of people using the facility has increased from 38,000 to 55,000 since it was built 18 years ago, said Sandra F. Reuben, the county librarian.

Prompt action is necessary, Schabarum said, because the county must meet a Nov. 1, 1990, deadline to apply for state funding under Proposition 85, the Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act. The new library would cost $7.6 million, and the county may be eligible to receive $4.3 million under the proposition.

In recent months, plans to build a library in the rapidly growing community have run into stumbling blocks.

First, the county balked at the $100,000 the school board wanted to charge it each year for leasing 2.5 acres on the Dibble site, which now is being used for an adult school. The county said it could afford only $15,000. Then board members said they didn’t want the library there at all because, if Dibble is reopened, the land would be needed for playgrounds and a performing arts center.

“There is a very large segment of the community who want an auditorium,” board member Sandy Johnson told Schabarum. “This is the age of performing arts. . . . This generation wants to perform and wants to be on stage.”

Johnson added that she wasn’t against the library, but said, “This doesn’t have to be Dibble or nothing. We have offered other sites. The La Subida (Elementary School) site, (or) Pepperwood Park would make an excellent site.”

The proposed library is one of four county projects needing state assistance, Reuben said. The other three are library expansions in Lancaster, Lawndale and Marina del Rey.

Several residents echoed Schabarum’s request.

Hacienda Heights Improvement Assn. President Barbara Fish said: “I don’t want to sound confrontational . . . but I don’t think we can have this wonderful educational ideal of teachers urging good reading habits and not put a library in the area to keep (students’) interests going.”

Schabarum, who is retiring from the Board of Supervisors in June, decided to attend the Thursday meeting despite a less-than-enthusiastic response from school officials in recent months, who warned the supervisor and the county librarian that many obstacles would stand in the way of building a library on the Dibble school grounds.

“It’s been his pet project from Day 1,” said Judy Hammond, the supervisor’s spokeswoman. “He decided to make a personal appearance to let the community know that.”

Reuben said the county would be willing to share the Dibble site with a performing arts center. She said officials have drawn up preliminary plans that would accommodate both facilities.

She added that the county is considering alternate sites--including La Subida, now used for administrative offices, and Pepperwood Park, in the eastern portion of Hacienda Heights--but prefers Dibble because of it is centrally located and surrounded by vacant land.