Council Awards Library Contract

The Oxnard City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to award a $10.2-million contract for the construction of a new 72,000-square-foot library on the corner of 2nd and A streets.

The new library, which is expected to be built by January, 1992, as part of the first phase of a larger civic center project, will be financed with proceeds generated from the sale in 1988 of $11 million in bonds, according to a city report.

J.R. Roberts Corp. of Point Mugu won the contract by submitting the lowest of seven bids.

City officials have been discussing construction of a new library for about five years but have delayed the project because of financial problems.

Library Director Gail Warner said the city’s 18,000-square-foot library on C Street is grossly inadequate for the number of books the library owns. She said the library opened in 1963 and was designed to hold 100,000 books. However, the building now holds more than 200,000 volumes and keeps 50,000 books in storage, she said.

“We have shelving on top of the bookshelves,” Warner said.

The new library is designed to hold about 500,000 volumes, she said.

The Oxnard library system is the oldest in the county, Warner said. The city’s library system was established in 1907 with the opening of the Carnegie Library, she said. The library was moved to its present location in 1963.

After the new library is built, the current library will be used for city office space, she said.

Eventually, that office space will be eliminated to make room for the new civic center.