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SANTA PAULA : City OKs Library’s Study of Park Sale

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Commissioners of the Blanchard Community Library in Santa Paula have gained city approval to explore the sale of a small, run-down community park that would make up for expected cuts in state funding.

The Santa Paula City Council on Monday unanimously approved a library request to apply for a General Plan amendment to change the zoning on the parcel. Currently zoned as open space, the parcel would need a commercial or residential zoning before the library commission could sell the property.

Built in 1972 on a 15,600-square-foot parcel that fronts Santa Barbara Street, the park, which had a fountain and picnic tables, has become the target of vandals, drug dealers and vagrants, library officials say.

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After vandals ripped out the brass fittings from the sprinkler system and removed the brass fixtures from the park’s water fountain four times, library officials shut off the water.

“The park is looking pretty shady back there with people sleeping on benches,” Mayor Alfonso C. Urias said.

The sale of the property has already been approved by trustees of the Santa Paula Union High School District, who also oversee the library district.

But several City Council members voiced reservations about the possible sale, citing concerns over the removal of parking spaces and landscaping.

Others expressed doubts that the sale of library property would solvethe library’s long-term financial problems.

But Library Commissioner James M. Rescoe said money from the sale would be added to the Blanchard Community Library Endowment Fund to provide a permanent source of funding.

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The library is open just three days a week for a total of 18 hours.

Proceeds from the sale of the park would allow the library to remain open longer, Assistant Librarian Janet Lindsay said.

Lindsay, one of three library employees who work full time despite receiving part-time wages, said the 70,000-volume library, housed in a converted Safeway supermarket, was open seven days a week before property taxes were slashed when Proposition 13 was approved in 1978.

The number of employees has since dropped to 12 from 42, with one librarian now doing the work once done by three librarians.

If the state lops $70,000 off the library’s $199,000 annual budget as expected, the library would have to lay off two more employees and reduce the $20,000 budget for purchasing books and periodicals to just $2,000 a year, Lindsay said.

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