Fund-Raising Drive Begun to Keep Library Open : Services: Feb. 19 is the final day unless more money is found. Weingart Foundation pledges $50,000 if community matches it.

The city is gearing up for a drive to raise up to $50,000 to help keep the beleaguered Weingart Library operating until the end of June.

The library, which is run by the Los Angeles County library system, faced closure Dec. 19, but was allowed to remain open until Feb. 19 under an agreement between the city and the library system.

After the library received the temporary stay, the Weingart Foundation pledged to provide $50,000 if the community can provide a matching amount. The funds would keep the library open until the end of the fiscal year in June.

City officials, a library support group and residents living near the library are scheduled to meet next week to plan a fund-raising campaign, city spokesman Donald Waldie said.

The library was closed briefly in November as a cost-cutting measure. It was temporarily reopened with reduced hours and staffing after an outcry from city officials and library users, who said the facility is vital to schoolchildren and immigrants who use the collection of books in Chinese, Korean and Spanish.

The county agreed to keep the library open temporarily after Lakewood agreed to pay the library’s utility bills, and returned $18,000 that the county had paid in rent on the library facility. The county previously paid utility bills.

“We’ve been pleased with (the county’s) willingness to at least keep the library open on an interim basis to allow time for those people in the community to undertake some fund-raising effort,” said Mayor Marc Titel.

The Weingart Foundation, which was formed by Lakewood developer Ben Weingart and his wife, has given the city $4 million in land and money over the years, for a variety of civic projects. The foundation provided $448,000 in 1978 to build the Palms Park Community Center, which houses the library. It was named after Weingart, who built the Lakewood Center mall and large housing tracts in the 1950s.