OAK PARK : Supervisor Warns of Delay on Library

Construction of a community library in Oak Park could begin by late 1994--unless the Oak Park Unified School District tries to change the proposed location, Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk has warned school officials.

“If you decide you want to study this for awhile, you’re going to put us three steps back, and we’ve just gone one step forward,” VanderKolk told school board members Tuesday night.

The library would be built and run jointly by the county and school district on land the district is donating at its Oak Park High School campus. The county now maintains a small library at the school.

But the district and county disagree over a precise location.

VanderKolk and members of a library task force favor a site on the edge of the campus, which would have an entrance from the street separate from the high school. At Tuesday’s board meeting, school administrators advocated building the library on a large lawn in the center of the campus.

“We would make this the crown jewel of this campus. We would make this the one thing people notice when they drive by on Kanan Road,” said Assistant Supt. Stan Mantooth, referring to the main street that fronts the high school.

But several said residents are intimidated by having to pass through the campus to use the library.

“I thought it was going to be a county library, a library for the community. But what I’m hearing is that it is going to be a high school library that the community is allowed to use,” Karen Littenberg said.

The board voted to discuss both locations in more detail with county planning officials before the panel takes up the issue again at its March 16 meeting.